Mercury
by Oh Inverted World x
Summary: Eclipse. The Batons move to Forks. They're not like others, with strange shifting eyes, and a secret no one knows. Not real werewolves, surely? How will them moving there affect the story? Emotions run high, plenty of scandal. Not a bad story. All canon.
1. Desert is Defrosting

**Chapter 1: Soon**

**Ahh, the creative urge. Damn my darned urges, I have yet to finish any of the stories on my profile! I came up with this while doing my English Paper 1 this morning… it would be too long for the essay question so I just kept it in my head. I hope you likey! The story happened a tad different in my little screwed up mind, but I spent a good half an hour thinking about the mechanics of certain elements of this story at the end of the exam, and I duno, I just got kinda excited bout it! Here goes, and critique is welcome :D**

**Please excuse the awkward first chapter. It gets better... much better. Trust me.**

_"Say say my playmate,_  
_wont you lay hands on me._  
_mirror my malady,_  
_transfer my tragedy."_  
-Wolf like Me _(**By** TV on the Radio)_

**Bold is Bella, **_italics are Edward._

I was sitting in English, bored out of my mind. I was sitting next to Edward, godly perfection.

**I'm so bored, **I wrote in my messy scrawl. I tossed the note over to my perfect vampire boyfriend.

_Bella you should really be concentrating. Finals are coming up soon, you know_. He wrote back, disapprovingly.

**Screw finals, am I really going to need them after I join the living dead? **I wrote jokingly.

_Not funny, Bella. And still, finals are important. _

**Entertain me.**

_How?_

**I don't know. Please? I'm bored.**

_Okay, I think you are the most wonderful, beautiful person that I have ever met in my hundred years. I love you more than anyone would think possible. Happy?_

**No. I already know that... tell me something I don't know.**

_Alice just had a vision of two high school kids being arrested by Officer Swan._

**Really? Who are they? **I looked over at him curiously.

_I've seen them around the hospital, but I don't know names. _

**Oh. that's strange. Anything else?**

_Well Mike is going over ways to woo you in his mind. He is so irritating; I wish I could just snap his neck for even thinking of doing that to you…_

**Doing what?**

_Nothing. Its nothing, love. _

Just then the bell sounded. I gathered my books.

"So who were these kids that Charlie arrested?" I asked, just to get Edward to stop glaring at Mike, who was looking like he feared for his life as Edward scowled murderously at him with his onyx eyes.

"The adopted kids of the new doctor in town, dr. Batons." he explained calmly. "I recognised one of them from the hospital." I raised my eyebrows.

"Wait, a new doctor in town, with adopted kids…? Sounds familiar," I commented, grinning at Edwards sudden smiles.

"That's what I thought. Only I'm 100% sure these kids aren't vampires. Its just a normal family with a few adopted kids. A few adopted kids with issues," he grinned.

He took my hand and we strolled to the cafeteria.

* * *

**Later that night, in Bella's room. **

I was lying on my bed, in Edward's cold arms, not being able to sleep, yet again. It was impossible to sleep when it felt like I had electric currents racing through my body…

"Still awake, love?" Edward purred in my ear. I shivered.

"Are you too cold? I could leave…" he began. Did he not know that with him, I never shivered from the cold…?

"No! don't! I just don't feel like sleeping right now…" I sighed.

"What do you want to do then, love?" he said, nuzzling my neck. I shivered again. "I love it when you shiver like that," he said softly.

"Edward you know what I want to do," I said, kissing his neck softly. This time he shivered.

"Quite contrary to what you might think Bella," he gulped. I loved seeing him like this. "Now is not the time to discuss your future as one of the eternally damned…"

"Edward you know that's not what I was talking about…" I said as he tried to dodge it.

He kissed my hair. "I was actually hoping it was. It's a much easier subject to discuss with you," he chuckled.

"So what do you think?" I asked, breathing heavily. I slid my hand under his t-shirt, and he didn't stop me. Wow. This was the furthest we'd ever gone without him stopping… was this really happening?

"I think… that I'll have to think about it." he smiled crookedly, and took the hand that was attempting to remove his shirt.

He. Said. That. He. Would. Think. About. It.

Wow.

That was Edward-speak for 'soon'.

"Really?" I asked in disbelief.

"Bella, you think that it's your blood sings to me the most. But you need to know that as much as I hate to admit it and put you in danger, your body sings to me maybe even more than your blood, believe it or not. I'm not sure if I can control myself any longer!"

I was shocked, and stuck for words. It seemed that I was going to get what I wanted, and not have to deal with any of that marriage nonsense along the way!

"Well Edward, you know how I feel about the subject, whenever your ready I'm ready." I said, to not sound like a sex-crazed pervert. "I don't want to rush you into anything you're not ready for, or are uncomfortable with…"

Edward stared at me for a moment. "You think I wont sleep with you because _I'm not ready?_ Bella, Bella, Bella, if that was the case I would have-" he stopped, realising what he was saying. Ah, poor Edward, always wanting to be the gentleman. "Never mind."

Just then I just happened to yawn. "Bella I think you should go to sleep. School in the morning."

"But I want to continue this conversation, I feel like we're making tons of progress!"

"In the morning, love, we can discuss this further. Now you have to sleep."

I couldn't disagree any longer, my eyelids felt heavy and my mind was clouded with fog.

"Okay, 'Night Edward, I love you," I whispered as I drifted off to sleep.

The last thing that I heard was "I love you too, Bella, my love. Sleep well."

**I'm gonna introduce the other family in the next chap. If anyone has any cool or unusual names for teens, do share! Oh and the family aren't Vamps or Wolves btw, theyre something more badass... **

**Reviews are loved but not required =] I just want you all to enjoy the story... =]**


	2. Déjá Vu

**Chapter 2: Déjá Vu**

**Je te remerci pour les reviews formidable XD bonnes responses!! vous etes trés sympa!! Les noms sont trés bien! **

**Thank you for all of the lovely reviews... I really appreciate the ideas =]**

_I gave a lot to you._  
_I take a lot from you too._  
_You slave a lot for me._  
_Guess you could say I gave you my edge._  
_But I can't pretend I need to defend some part of me from you._  
_I know I've spent some time all lying._  
-The New_ (**By** Interpol_)

I woke up to the sound of Charlie's police cruiser leaving at around 7 am. I looked around. Edward was gone, probably home to change his clothes and get his car. I smiled. Remembering the last night.

He said 'soon'.

I jumped in the shower, and then got dressed, throwing on some old jeans and a flannel shirt. I stumbled down the stairs into the kitchen. Grabbing a granola bar and a glass of orange juice, I sat down at the table waiting for Edward to come pick me up for school.

Just then the doorbell rang. I skipped over to the door, struggling with the deadbolt for a moment. I opened the door to see Edwards perfection smiling at me.

"Hi," I breathed. He took my hand and we walked over to his car.

I got into the front seat. Edward looked at me, smiling.

"You know how you hate Trig?" he asked once we were on the road.

"Yeah?" I said suspiciously.

"Well how would you feel if I could have us both transferred into a Differentiation class instead?" he said raising an eyebrow.

"No way!" I exclaimed.. "That would be awesome! How?"

"Well I pulled a few strings… so are you up for it?"

"Eh yeah?" I said, rolling my eyes. "When do I get to change?"

"Today, if you want? Just go pick up a timetable at the front office and tell them you're exchanging. They already know." he grinned.

He pulled up into the student lot. Alice, of course, was waiting for us.

"Hi guys!" she said excitedly. "Excited about your new class? Called and transferred as soon as I saw you were moving! It's going to be so cool to be in class with you and Edward!"

"Um yeah, I cant wait," I slowly. I spotted Mr. Varner walking from his car. I decided that I should probably inform him that I was leaving his class.

"Good idea," said Alice approvingly. "he would have been wondering where you were today!"

"I'll come too, since I'm moving as well!" said Edward.

"Fine I'll come too, if your going to insist…" Alice said again.

God, I don't know how I'm going to stand it spending a whole eternity with the fortune teller and the mind reader having all of these weird half conversations all of the time…

I walked up to Varner. I told him, and he seemed surprisingly happy to hear my news. I was a bit insulted, actually. When he left, Alice burst out laughing.

"Il était de bonne humeur. Sa femme lui avait probablement donné quelques preuves d'amour la nuit précédente*!" she said, and dissolved into giggles again. Edward raised his eyebrows.

"Bang on, Alice, you're actually right!" and he burst out laughing as well.

"Erm, hello? Care to share you're little joke?" I said, annoyed. "Not everyone here is fluent in Flemish, you know!"

"Bella, Bella, Bella, firstly, its French, and secondly it's not suitable for you're virgin ears!" Alice said. I knew she was joking when she laughed again, but I blushed anyway.

"But you told Edward, and last I checked…" I began mumbling, but I was cut off by the sound of Jasper's howling laughter behind us. I glanced over at Edward. He wasn't smiling anymore… he was glaring at Jasper, who wound his arm around Alice's slender frame. I didn't even want to know what either of them were thinking.

"Anyways, Edward, I have to go get my schedule. I'll see you in class?" I said, changing the subject. Edward's expression softened.

"Okay, love, I'll see you then," he said, kissing my head, and then walked away with Alice and Jasper.

I walked into the office to get my new timetable. As I pushed open the door, I was stunned to see who was standing at the desk chatting to the receptionist. I picked up in the gist of the conversation.

"…so your first class is History. You take a left turn at the main building, and continue on until you see the…"

Leah Clearwater was a new student at Forks High? I would recognise her tall, muscular body, her dark russet shin and long silky black hair even from behind. Why was she transferring from the school on the Rez? She was in her final year, what's the point of changing schools this late in the term?

After the initial shock of seeing Leah here of all people, I started to notice that she looked funny.

She wasn't wearing her typical Leah attire… she wore a long white t-shirt dress clenched with a wide belt at the waist, and black leggings instead of her usual jeans-and-t-shirt combo. Wow, she must be re-inventing herself, I thought. Good for her. It must be hard for her, with the recent death of her father and being the only female werewolf in her pack…

Suddenly she turned around. I gasped when I saw her face.

"Oh and Gala?" Ms. Cope said to the girl who was obviously not Leah. "Give my best luck to your family!"

"Thank you, miss, I will." The tall girl said.

She had the native-American looks, but her face was different to Leah's.

Her expression was harsh. She had high cheekbones, and a strong jaw line. She had all of the typical native American features, dark skin, dark hair, defined bone structure… but not the dark eyes. Her eyes were a really weird colour… almost black at the edge of the iris, and then just at the pupil they were a really light green, almost white. It struck me as odd, her eyes reminded me of chocolate-chip mint ice-cream.

She glanced over in my direction and strode past me out of the office building.

I walked up to the desk.

"I'm here to pick up my new timetable, and to inform you that I'm changing from Trig to Differentiation?" I said to Ms Cope. She smiled warmly at me.

"Here you go, dear. And I already have you registered. Mr. Hanley knows you're joining his class this afternoon. Have you met our newest students? The Batons?" she asked kindly. I shook my head. "Well they seem like a lovely bunch of kids. A bit rowdy, mind…" she trailed off, checking something on her computer. "Well, I hope you enjoy your new class, honey. Have a nice day!"

I walked out to building four, where I had my first class, biology. I took a seat beside Edward, as usual.

"Edward, I just thought one of the new kids was Leah Clearwater!" I whispered. "I was about to say hi, but then I was like _not her! _That could have been embarrassing!"

"That must be the Native American Batons girl. Alice thought it was Leah, too, when she saw her in a vision, but then she remembered that she couldn't see wolves," he rolled his eyes. "Typical fluffy headed Alice,"

I noticed that a new student was talking to Mr. Banner at his desk. He was obviously signing the slip that had to be signed by every teacher on a new students first day. I remembered my first day, in this very class, when I first saw Edward. Sure, he was fighting the urge not to rip my throat out, but it was still the day that my life changed forever. I smiled fondly at Edward. He grinned back at me, and leaned in to whisper in my ear.

"This new guy is pretty nervous. His sister was supposed to be in this class with him, but she's sick today, so he has to face it alone. He's dreading this, he hates biology,"

It was always nice to have Edward around, to give me an in-depth reading of a persons inner workings. From the looks of this boy, I would have never guessed that he was nervous. He had a certain dominant air about him; the way he held his tall body said it all. He had longish, flicky dark blonde hair, and a face that would be considered handsome by anyone's standards. Anyone's but mine, of course, no one would ever compare to Edward for me. I glanced over to where Lauren was sitting. She was re-applying a thick, sludgy lip-gloss, and I could see her in my mind rushing off to the bathrooms after class to stuff her bra with toilet paper. Edward looked over as well, and grinned, so she must be thinking something absurd.

"Students," Mr Banner said, while stacking a pile of papers. "This is Christian Batons. You can take a seat right here, Mr. Batons, and open your textbook to page 94." he said gesturing to a desk in the middle of the room.

The class passed uneventfully.

Soon it was time for lunch. I walked to the cafeteria with Edward and Alice. Alice was chatting animatedly about a makeover that she was planning for me. I was half listening, half obsessing over Edward's _soon._

I was still stunned... it was so unlike Edward...

As soon as I walked into the cafeteria, I had extreme déjà vu of my first day at Forks High, in the cafeteria.

There we four of them this time. No way nearly as stunning as the Cullens had been that first day, but they were attractive enough.

The Batons.

I recognised Gala, the tall native American girl, and Christian, the blonde floppy haired guy from biology. The other two were also boys, although they looked a collage-going age. One was tall, dark, and Latino. His jet-black hair hung loosely around his face. His muscles were visible under his tight grey t-shirt, and he was eating an apple while saying something to Gala, who was smiling and nodding. The other boy was tall, and also muscular, yet lanky. He had dark brown hair which was hanging in front of his eyes. He had a very light natural tan and, was looking very bored, like the concept of school bored him to death. He raked his fingers through his hair and looked up at the roof of the cafeteria. I noticed his eyes were very dark in colour, and menacing.

"Oh the new kids!" Alice squealed. "Look! Everyone has something new to stare at!"

It was true. Everyone in the room was gawking at the four newcomers, instead of at the beautiful vampires.

"Lauren and Jessica are going to approach them in thirty seconds. Lets sit down and get front row seats to the show!" Alice squeaked. She skidded off towards our table. Edward rolled his eyes.

"Nothing interesting is going to happen, Bella. Alice is just excited that there's a new family in town with as many adopted children as us, so we'll seem more normal. And I don't think they appreciate being stared at; the brown haired boy especially; he's very paranoid at the moment!" he chuckled and placed items of food on my tray.

We went back to sit at our table. As usual, Rosalie was ignoring me, Emmett was playing with his food, Jasper was looking at Alice with utter devotion.

Edward was chatting to Emmett about a new hunting spot while I ate. I had that feeling that someone was watching me.

I glanced behind me, to see Christian Batons looking at me with the most penetrating eyes that I had ever seen. They were so light that they looked nearly white, but must have been a light grey. Gala was staring at me as well, with her strange chocolate-chip mint ice-cream eyes. When they saw me looking, Gala looked at Christian and said something, and he smiled and returned to looking at his food.

I looked over at Edward. He looking was at me with a soft expression.

"What was she saying to Christian?" I asked. Why was he laughing at me?

"He was thinking that you had nice hair, and then when you looked at him that you had beautiful eyes. The girl told him to stop staring or I might beat him up," he chuckled.

"Wait, which ones were the ones who were arrested by Charlie?" I asked.

"The brown haired boy and the Latino boy," Alice piped up. "They were fighting. Someone called the cops. They got off with a warning,"

"Oh," I said, and returned to eating my pizza. My mind wandered to my conversation with Edward last night… and how I was going to make a special effort to look good tonight, so hopefully his _soon_ will become a _now_. I smiled happily when the bell went, and walked off to class with Edward in a daze, planning out exactly what I was going to try tonight.

I wasn't watching where I was going, so it came as an utter shock to me when I bumped into someone, and not only dropped all of my books, but also knocked all of theirs. If it wasn't for Edward catching me, I would have fell flat on my ass. I looked up to see a very bewildered looking Christian Batons.

"I'm… I'm so sorry!" I stuttered, blushing violently. "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, and I…"

"It's okay," he said with a slight Californian accent. "I should have been watching where I was going,"

I looked at him. His eyes weren't grey as I had thought earlier, but light baby blue speckled with the same mint-ice cream colour as Gala. A very unusual colour, almost hypnotising...

Edward bent down to pick up my books, and so did Christian, breaking his spell over me. Edward had my books stacked in a neat pile before Christian even reached the ground. He stacked his own books sloppily and grabbed them. He stood up.

"Christian Batons," he said, reaching his hand out to me to shake, smiling hugely. Wow, he had a big mouth, but not in an unattractive way. Just a friendly way.

"Bella Swan," I replied, taking his hand. "and this is Edward Cullen, my boyfriend." I added the last part to reassure Edward.

"Nice to meet you both. Well I have to run off to class, I wouldn't want no tardy slips on my first day now, would I, darlin?" he said, and sauntered down the hallways.

Edward looked at me and grinned. "I like him," he said. "he's the only male in this school that decided to not hit on you, love!"

"Why? What do the other boys think?" I asked. What the hell were they thinking?!

"Never mind, love, lets get to class," he dodged.

We arrived in English, but all through the class I couldn't concentrate. All I could think about was about tonight, and how I might just finally get what I want…

**And for the frenchly-special people…**

_*He was in a good mood. His wife probably gave him some lovin' last night!_

**Hehe :) so I'd love it if you'd tell me what you think of my newbies! First impression of Christian? What's Gala going to be like? And the other boys? **

**Oh mysterious, I haven't introduced them yet XD twill be epic! But tell me what you expect of them =] **

**Once again I'm not forcing anyone to review, but i would appreciate it so much =]**

**And how much are you loving Leah and Jacob as a couple? I think theyre just the shizz. Renesmee who?**


	3. Oh My, Dinner with the Batons, Part I

**Chapter 3: Oh My, Dinner with the Batons, Part I**

**Here's chapter 3! Its kinda meh, but its just part 1! Ill be updating really soon! YAY NO MORE EXAMS!!!!!!! I'm so happy that the Junior Cert id over=] I was so emo over the exams it was unreal. =] **

_"And i've made friends with the hang man,_  
_So there'll be no more winter,_  
_There'll be no more spring and_  
_There'll be no more dinner bells_  
_Left for you to ring.."  
-_Dinner Bells_ (**By** Wolf Parade)_

Edward gave me a lift home from school, as usual. He left me off at the house, and then went over to his to collect Alice. They were going hunting directly after school. The only reason for that that I could think of was that Edward wasn't taking any chances with me tonight.

I smiled and waved as I watched Edward drive off. Was tonight the night? I really hoped so.

I ran upstairs to get ready for tonight. I stripped off my clothes and jumped in the shower. I scrubbed every inch of myself until I was pink, and shaved my legs carefully. I really didn't want to cut myself by accident, as that might have monstrous consequences later on tonight, no matter how well I bandaged it up.

While I was shampooing my hair, I heard the phone ringing. Typical. I knew that if I got out and rushed down to get it, it would stop ringing the minute that I reached it, so I let it ring. If it was important they'd call back.

I got out and dried myself. I sprayed myself with the perfume Renee had gotten me for my last birthday, even though technically I already smelled good to Edward. It was a comfort thing. I looked through my underwear drawer. I officially had nothing sexy to wear… I was sifting through them, deciding which were the least mortifying, when I heard the light tap on the window.

I froze. Was Edward early? I wasn't ready! Or was I…? I glanced down at the red towel that wrapped itself around my body. Not the worst think in the world to be wearing at a time like this…

"Keep your panties on, Bella, it's only me!" Alice said, climbing in my window, carrying a small package.

She loped over to my bed and sat down. "I called, but no-one answered. So I decided to come over myself!"

I wrapped my towel around my body self-consciously, and blushed. Alice didn't seem to notice my mortification.

"There are two reasons that I'm here, Bella," she began, knowing that I was about to ask that question. "The first is to tell you that our family has been invited to have dinner with Carlisle's new friend, Bassanio Batons, tonight. Edward didn't want to go, apparently he was going to spend the evening with you," she winked at me, "but Carlisle is forcing him. And, of course, it would be nice if at least one of us could actually eat the food that his wife has been preparing, so you're coming too. And the second reason that I'm here," she said, not even waiting for my response, "is to give you these," she said, gesturing to the white package that she had placed on my bed.

"Alice, you know how I don't like gifts…" I began.

"Bella, you'll thank me for these!" she squealed, and handed me the package. I reluctantly accepted it.

I removed the wrappings, to see a pair of deep blue lacy underpants, and a matching lacy bra. I immediately blushed, but was relieved at the same time. I looked up at Alice and tried to figure out something to say.

"A simple 'thank you Alice, you have the best choices, I'm so lucky to have you' will suffice!" she smirked.

"Thank you Alice, you have the best choices, I'm so lucky to have you!" I said. She smiled, and got up.

"I know Edward is very partial to that colour blue on you. I saw you bumbling round searching for something to wear, so I decided you needed my divine intervention!" she laughed. "But now, I have to go. Edward will pick you up at seven. Be ready!" she pecked me on the cheek and disappeared out the window.

Thank god for Alice. I put on my new underwear, and inspected myself in the mirror. They were just the right size, and I must admit, liked them. They hugged my curves, and the ruffled detail made me look like I had a fuller figure. I walked into my room once again and went to pick out what to wear.

How was I expected to dress for dinner at the Batons? What was everyone else going to wear? I decided to go casual, and wear jeans and a t-shirt. Suddenly I heard the phone ringing downstairs again. I rushed down to get it.

"Don't you dare wear that awful outfit!" Alice screamed down the phone. "Look in your wardrobe, I hung one up for you." and the phone went dead. I sighed.

I went back up to my room, and sure enough, there was a brand new outfit hanging in there, still swinging, which I was sure was not there the last time I checked. I sighed again, and put it on.

It was a typical Alice outfit. A high wasted black and grey can-can type skirt with layers of white ruffles underneath, which came to just above my knees. It was a bit too short for my liking, but I didn't want another phone call from Alice, so I just put it on. The top was a fitted black long-sleeved v-neck, which I tucked into the skirt. The outfit didn't look bad, I just felt a little uncomfortable in it.

I glanced at my clock. 5.15. I still had three quarters of an hour to kill.

I decided to do something I never usually did. I looked in the drawer where I kept the make-up that had been given to me by relatives who obviously didn't know me very well. It was all unused.

I picked out some mascara and lip-gloss. I didn't dare try any of the eyeliner, I knew I'd just make a mess of my face if I attempted to use it.

When that was done I decided to put on a load of laundry, just to kill some time. Before I knew it, I heard a knock at the door.

I skipped over and got it. To my surprise, it was Jasper, not Edward, who greeted me.

"H-hello, Jasper," I stuttered.

"Hello, Bella. Edward wants you to know that he'll be meeting you at the Batons'. I'll be giving you a lift." he said politely.

I followed him to his car, which I had never seen him drive, and got in. I knew that it should have been a very awkward trip, but I felt comfortable all of the way. God bless Jasper and his gift.

He pulled up at a medium sized white house on the edge of town. It had a very homely look about it, enclosed in a white picket fence, and the garden was nicely tended.

Jasper parked in the driveway next to two other cars, one of which I recognised as Edward's Volvo, and the other as Carlisle's Mercedes.

Me and Jasper walked up the steps together. I knew I should be nervous, but I wasn't.

He knocked on the door twice, and it was opened by a woman who looked like she was in her mid-twenties, wearing a light blue summer dress and a pink apron. She had long, mahogany hair and vivid cobalt eyes. She smiled warmly.

"Hello, dears, you must be Jasper and Bella. I'm Jeanette. You're just in time!" she sand, with a slight accent.

I followed Jasper into the house. It was spacious, and well furnished. It smelled of delicious home cooking, but I swear that when I looked over at Jasper he looked like he gagged a little. I smiled to myself. How was a dinner party going to work with seven vampires?

We walked into a large open dining room. Edward and the Cullens were already seated, except for Esme, who was carrying a large pot, and Carlisle, who was nowhere to be seen. I also saw the kids from school, Gala, Christian, the brown haired boy and the Latino boy, along with another, a small and pale looking girl with limp blonde hair tied into a loose bun, and sunken brown eyes. I guessed that she was the girl who had been sick for the first day. She sure looked like death warmed up.

"Sit right here, dear," Jeanette said to me, gesturing to the empty seat beside Edward. "Have you met the family?" she asked. I shook my head.

"I met Christian," was all I could manage. I could feel Gala's cold eyes staring at me again. I blushed heavily.

"Yeah, we ran into each other, didn't we?" he joked. Jeanette smiled fondly at him.

"Well this here is Gala, and you know Christian. Those two trouble makers over there are Andrew and Sebastian," she said, looking at the boys, who were arguing silently. They stopped for a moment and nodded at me. "And last, but not least, this is Hero." The girl with the dark, sunken eyes looked up at me and smiled meekly. "She's recovering from a nasty bout of flu at the moment."

"It's a pleasure to meet you all," I choked out awkwardly. Suddenly, I heard the front door slam.

"That should be the men coming home from work." Jeanette smiled as she went into the kitchen to grab a bowl.

A tall man with Mediterranean looks entered the room. He looked like he was in his early thirties, and was well built. Behind him was Carlisle. They were laughing as they entered.

"Hello kids," the tall man said in a booming voice, before giving Jeanette a kiss. He looked over at Carlisle's family and me. "I'm Bassanio Batons,"

He sat down at the head of the table. Carlisle sat beside him.

"Okay, dears, dinner is served!" chimed Jeanette.

**Sorry about the shit chapter. I'm dividing this one up into two parts cos it would be too long otherwise! Yeeeah =] So I have the next part typed up, but its on my other computer, cos my laptop has been confiscated recently cos of exams and whatnot. But I have it back now! Woooooo exams are OVER!!!!!!! YAY!!!! **

**So, tell me what you think of my new family, the Batons, before you read on. Please? it'll make me super happy! What are they? Good? Evil? Weird? **

**Reviews are nice... but you know the rest ;]**


	4. Dinner with the Batons, Part II

**Chapter 5: Dinner with the Batons, Part II**

**Yay I found my key! So... here's the next chapter =]**

**(Oh and I'm aware that I'm using JoBro lyrics for this chap... But i was in the mood. Don't judge moi, I saw them and decided that they suited the mood! =] )**

_"Told you I made dinner plans,_  
_For you and me and no one else,_  
_That don't include your crazy friends,_  
_Well I'm done..._  
_With awkward situations empty conversations..."  
-_S.O.S_ (**By **the Jonas Brothers)_

The dinner was awkward.

I could see that none of the vampires were enjoying their meal. I could see that Jeanette saw that as well. She her kind blue eyes were watchful, she could see that the Cullens were at unease. She kept asking if she could get anyone anything else to eat, and once I saw Jasper nearly answer her, but Alice glared at him and Edward kicked him under the table. I stifled a giggle, and Gala shot me a murderous glance to shut me up. It worked.

I made an effort to look like I was enjoying the meal, which wasn't hard, in all fairness. Jeanette was an amazing cook.

We were eating roast lamb and potatoes, and sauce garnished it to give it a really unique taste. I made a mental note to ask for the recipe after dinner.

Conversation between Esme, Carlisle, Jeanette and Bassanio was easy and light. From listening in I learned that Bassanio and Jeanette had been married for eight years, and lived on a farm in Montana with the kids up until now. Jeanette was Norwegian ans twenty-nine years old, and Bassanio was of Italian decent and was thirty-three, and they met in a café in Denmark years ago.

In stark contrast, the Cullen kids and the Batons kids conversation was strained. Emmett and the tall Mexican boy, who I assumed was Sebastian, talked about hunting for a while. Emmett had a smug smile on his face knowing that he could out hunt anyone without even any weapons, but Sebastian had a peculiar smile on his face as well, a smile that I didn't fully trust. I don't know why I felt that, all I know is that I didn't like it.

Jasper talked uneasily to Andrew, until Andrew got distracted by Sebastian, and they started arguing again. They were both quite explosive and intense.

I noticed Sebastian's eyes for the first time since meeting him. They wouldn't have caught my attention if they were on anyone else at the table, but they just stood out so strongly on him. Since Sebastian was Latino, I would have thought that he would have the typical dark eyes. He instead had a strange blend of what looked like dark brown, but with a sheen of a light bluey green over it, giving it a nearly milky hue over the black base. It made him look blind.

Gala and Hero chatted to themselves, as did Rosalie and Alice, occasionally speaking to each other about designer brands or shoes. Hero looked as if she was going to throw up any moment, but I noticed that she ate a lot for such a small girl. Come to think of it, they all did in that family. The portions were huge, much to the Cullens' despair. Rosalie had to leave the table on two occasions to presumably choke it up. The others just grinned and bore it and pretended to enjoy the meal.

During the course of the meal I spoke mostly to Edward and Christian. Christian was so nice and easy to talk to, he reminded me a bit of Jacob. He also reminded me of an actor I had once seen in a movie about a stuntman, I couldn't recall the name of the movie, but the leading man and Christian had the same large mouth. It made him look like such a nice person, like he was chatty. And he really was.

We talked about movies and music, I couldn't really join in in the conversation about the latter as Edward and him just talked about music that I had never heard of. I just nodded and smiled. Christian had such an obscure music taste.

When it came time to leave, everyone had loosened up. Jeanette hugged everyone goodbye, Sebastian gave a small salute and smiled and Andrew gave a crooked smile as they said their goodbyes, and then the two boys returned to bickering. Gala nodded in recognition and Hero gave a huge grin, the first I had seen all night, and I wondered if she was feeling better. Christian and Bassanio walked us to our cars, and as I got into Edward's Volvo, Christian grabbed my hand.

"See you in school tomorrow, Bella," he breathed in my ear.

"Okay, I'll see you then, then," I choked out. He pecked me on the cheek as I got into the car. I smiled awkwardly at him as we drove off. Edward had either not noticed that last thing or just didn't care, as he didn't say anything about it. That gave me a knot in my stomach. Edward noticed everything.

He drove me straight to my house, and dropped me off at the front porch. He kissed me on the cheek and whispered "I'll be around later, love."

I walked in to see Charlie watching sports on the television.

"Hey Bells," he greeted me. "Did you have fun at dinner?"

"Yeah, sure, the Batons are lovely people," I answered simply.

"I hope you didn't get too friendly with the young men in that family," he said disapprovingly. "They're quite a handful,"

"For your information, dad, Christian is very well behaved and polite. He is a very nice guy, so don't judge him yet." I said.

"If it's the young blond boy you're talking about, I wasn't referring to him. It's the other two that I'm worried about. It took more than just me to get them down to the station the last night, Bells," he cautioned. "They were fighting down near Cleary's late at night. It was proper fighting as well, not just a brotherly tiff. It took me, Jim, Henry and two other bystanders to even get them apart. Mark my words, they are a hell of a lot stronger than they look! Big, ropey muscles on the both of them."

"Really? What was that all about?" I asked.

"I don't know. I got a call from Mrs Cleary saying that there were two men fighting outside her store. When I arrived, I couldn't get them apart so I called for backup. When I finally got them to the station for questioning, they were getting on again, saying it was just play fighting. Dr Batons and his wife seemed pretty peeved when they were called in, but from the sounds of it you'd know it's not the first time they've been called in."

"Wow. I'll stay away. Anyway, I'm spent. 'Night, dad, see you in the morning."

"'Night, Bells," he said, returning his focus to the television.

I walked tiredly up to my room. When I got there I saw Edward sitting on my bed, reading one of my books. He looked up and smiled at me as I went to sit on his lap.

"Hello, love," he said, kissing my hair.

"Hi," I said back, throwing my arms around his neck.

"What did you think of dinner?" he asked.

"It was good. Have fun choking it up afterwards?" I said with a grin. Edward grimaced.

"As always," he said sarcastically. "So what do you think of the Batons?"

I thought for a moment. What _did_ I think of them? I liked Christian. I knew that, he was just great. He was fun, chatty, and just a great guy to be around. His brothers freaked me out, they both had a wild look in their eyes that made them seem unstable. And the girls… Gala was fierce, and intense. Hero was too sick to judge just yet.

"They seem… very nice." Edward arched one perfect eyebrow.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked, as curious as always.

"Well, Jeanette seems lovely. Bassanio comes across as a nice guy, and Christian is just charming. But the others… I don't know. What did you think of them, seeing as you have such a better insight?"

"Well, Andrew and Sebastian, although it may not appear so, are very close, the term that comes to mind is _blood brothers_. Gala is very observant, she is the only one who noticed that my family were reluctant to eating human food. She's also very protective of Hero, for some reason. Very sisterly. And Hero was very interesting… she's been sick for the past three days, very violently, and it definitely wasn't a flu."

"What was it then?"

"I don't know. I saw that she has been having heavy nosebleeds, and throwing up blood. Nothing I've ever seen. I was worried that she might get a bleed at dinner, but it seems that her sickness has passed. And also," he said with a smirk, "she's obsessed with Andrew."

"Really? I did not notice that. But… tell me about Christian." Edward shifted uncomfortably.

"What do you want to know?"

"I don't know… stuff."

"Well he likes classic rock music, and he drives an old mustang." was all he said.

"I meant what was he thinking during dinner?" I said, rolling my eyes. Edward was so obtuse sometimes.

"To be honest, Bella, he was thinking about you mostly, and how beautiful you are. It unsettled me." Edward sighed. "He wasn't thinking about you in the typical teenage boys way, like that vile Mike Newton. He was… quite sweet about. I resisted the urge to rip his throat out just about all night."

I was stunned. Christian really thought that?

"Oh…" I mumbled. "You know it's only you that I love," I said, kicking off my trousers and climbing under the duvet. The sudden tiredness was taking over me.

"Yes, love, I am aware. I love you too. Now get some sleep."

I mumbled in agreement, and snuggled against his wintry chest.

As I drifted off to sleep, my mind wandered randomly to the first time I had spoken to Edward. It had been snowing that day, and the last thing I remembered thinking was how good Edward's hair had looked, with the snow all melted in it…

* * *

I don't know exactly when my memories turned to dreams.

All I know is that one moment I was lying in my bed with Edward, and the next I'm walking down a snowy street at night. From the dim streetlights I can see that I'm not alone. There are two tall figures walking alongside me.

One of them was wearing a hood, so I couldn't be sure who it was. But the other figure was unmistakably Bassanio Batons. He wore a grim expression, and instinctively I knew that there was something going on.

We stopped outside a hospital. I didn't catch the name of it, because my focus was turned to Bassanio, who was talking quietly to the hooded figure. Their voices were hushed, but I found that if I concentrated I could hear them.

"…just let me help, Baz, I caused this. If I don't help, I'll never forgive myself. I have ruined more than one life here, I need to make this right… Please…" she sobbed. She was so vulnerable, it was strange.

"No, Gala, you have to leave. If anyone saw you, this could get ugly. Go to the cabin in Alaska and stay there. Sort yourself out. We'll come see you when this is over, okay?" Bassanio nearly hissed. The wind blew, and Gala's hood came down, showing her beautiful russet face and long dark, slightly curling hair. But her teary eyes were different. Instead of their chocolate-chip ice-cream colour, they were now nearly pure minty green, save a bit of brown at the outer edge, shining in the pale moonlight.

"In a few hours, if you're still here, we'll have an even bigger problem. Do you want to make this worse for us? Do you want to draw attention to us? Do you?" He demanded.

"If I can't help you with her, let me go help Jeanette and Seb find the male that's loose in the area. He's big, and Jeanette is so fragile… Just let me help…" she pleaded.

I felt myself walk dreamily over to them. Gala looked at me pleadingly with her teary mint eyes.

"You have to go, Gala." I said coldly. As soon as I heard my voice I knew who I was. I recognised the soft Californian accent. I was Christian Batons. "Jeanette is tough, and Sebastian is good at what he does. They don't need you. You can't stay."

She looked at me with resignation, turned on her heel and sprinted down the snowy street. Bassanio smiled at me sadly.

The cold, dark scene dissolved around me and suddenly I was aware that I was standing in a hospital, observing the dreamlike scene of pandemonium around me. There were nurses and doctors running about franticly. I spotted Bassanio speaking to another doctor, who looked incredibly stressed. I heard the words 'gruesome' and 'homicide', but they barely registered. I noted that the hospital looked slightly outdated, not quite in 2009 from the looks of the clothes on the people and the machinery. Suddenly Bassanio was at my side.

"We have to be quick," he said. I followed him down an empty hallway, and we were suddenly at a door marked, 'Hera Waters, 34A'

"She had just woken from a coma. She was expected to make a full recovery." He said in a small, melancholy voice. I put my hand on is shoulder. I felt the need to comfort him.

He opened the door to reveal a bloody scene. There was blood everywhere. On the walls, the floor, the roof… and there were shreds of bloody clothes lying on the ground, and the windows were smashed. My stomach lurched, and my head swam.

"She was only sixteen." Was all Bassanio said. "Oh well, lets do this quickly. The police will be here soon."

I woke up screaming.

**Wow that was a long chapter! **

**So what do you think? I don't know. This was a super long chapter!! I was like wow it took me like a billion years to write, cos I've been out a lot now that exams are over!! Wooo!! OMG im so sunburned XD **

**So, what do you think? Like it, hate it? Please tell me! What are your thoughts on the Batons? What does the dream mean? do share your opinions before you read on! **

**Thank you for your reviews... or i can get by on positive thoughts =]**


	5. Stupid

**Chapter 6: Stupid**

**This Chapter is titled 'Stupid' after me. Want to know a funny story? I wrote out two chapters of this story, and I posted one of them. Tonight I was looking through my stories and I was like I should write some more Mercury, havnt wrote it in ages! Let me just check the last thing I wrote… awwh shiiit!... I posted the wrong one!! so those of you who are subscribed try to ignore the last chap(deleted now) , its supposed to be the next one cos I'm stupid. **

**I'm such a blond! Okay, through things, if you must!**

"What's wrong?" Edward, said urgently, as I gasped for breath.

That was such a vivid dream… could I really have thought of that all by myself? No, no way. Could I?

"Nightmare," I mumbled into his icy shoulder.

"Do you want to tell me about it?"

I explained to him about my dream, about the Batons, and the bloody hospital room. He just looked at me with pursed lips. Saying my dream out loud somehow reinforced my belief that it was all real. But that was impossible. But it was so strong and clear, how could it not have been real?

"Bella, it was just a dream," he comforted me. "It's not real…"

"Okay, it was just a stupid dream…" I murmured. I glanced at my bedside clock. It read 3.32am. "I should really get back to sleep."

I lay in bed, but I didn't sleep. I lay thinking about my dream. Something definitely wasn't right with the Batons… but what? Had Gala killed a young Hera Waters by accident? Dreams weren't usually as specific as to give names…

I had a flash of inspiration. I shot up into a sitting position.

"What's wrong?" Edward said worriedly. "did you have another nightmare?"

"No, I need the computer. Go switch it on, I wont be able to sleep if I don't check something."

Edward was suddenly sitting at my desk, switching on my ancient computer. I went to the bathroom to fetch a glass of water as he set up. I studied myself in the mirror as I heard him connecting to the modem. I looked dreadful. Pale skin, dark rings under my eyes… if I were more beautiful, I may have passed for a vampire.

"Bella?" Edward whispered. "What do you want to search?"

"Hera Waters. It was the name on the bloody room."

I heard the keys being tapped, and then Edwards sharp intake of breath.

"Bella, come here quick." he said. I rushed in and looked at the screen. My blood ran cold.

He was looking at a newspaper article from 2004, in the a newspaper from New York.

_Police have no leads concerning the whereabouts of the body of sixteen-year-old Hera Waters. _

_Miss Waters had been in a coma for three months after a car crash which killed the two other passengers in the car. Tracy Dean, 16, and Noah Murphy, 18, both died, Dean in hospital several hours later, and the driver, Murphy, on impact. _

_It was considered a miracle that Waters woke from her coma. She suffered blunt force trauma to the skull and probable brain damage. She awoke, but was still in a critical condition, when disaster struck once again, two nights after Miss Waters awoke from her coma. _

_Waters was presumably asleep, as her parents had left for the night, when an unidentified assailant entered the room. It is unknown what happened that night, but it has baffled police. _

_There was no sign of forced entry, but the windows from the 4th floor room were smashed. Blood was sprayed across the room in a violent manner, and shreds of the victims clothes lay on the floor, hinting at a sexual assault. _

_The body was nowhere to be seen. _

_Hera Waters was a popular student at Saint James high. She had good grades, and was loved by students and teachers alike. This arouses the question: who would do this?_

"_We believe that it was a hate crime," chief of police Declan Johnson says, "there was a lot of scandal surrounding the circumstances of the crash that killed two of Miss Waters' friends. Some felt bitter that their loved ones had perished and Hera was aloud live. There are undergoing interviews with the people connected to the deceased teenagers, to see if any information was missed in the initial investigation. So far, there has been no luck."_

_It has been three weeks since Hera Waters disappearance. There is no doubt that she is dead, but her family still urge anyone with information to come forward._

"_We just want the body of our daughter," sobbed Hera's mother, Maria. "We just want to give her a proper burial." _

_Anyone with information is urged to contact Harlem Police station at…._

I stopped reading. I felt as if my stomach was filled with frogs, and my head was spinning.

"They never found her," Edward said. "That was five years ago."

My ears started ringing. My vision went blurry.

Before I knew it, everything went black.

**Before you read on. I would appreciate if you would give me a little review as to what you think so far! I know, I know, I'm a dumb blonde, oh I know! Share some blonde moments to make me feel better, like a group therapy! **

**Thank you for reading :)**


	6. Discover

_"I read the news today, oh boy,_  
_About a lucky man who made the grade,_  
_And though the news was rather sad,_  
_Well I just had to laugh_  
_I saw the photograph..."  
-_A Day in the Life_ (_**By **_the Beatles)_

As we walked into the cafeteria hand in hand, I tried my best to remember the plan.

Edward and I had been up all night perfecting our plan. I had the feeling Edward was humouring me, but I didn't care as long as I got my answers.

I caught sight of Christian as he walked in through the doors, walking beside Hero. She looked 100% better than she had last night, her short blond hair curling to just above her shoulders, and her flat brown eyes shimmering. Her thin frame was clothed in black sweatpants and a green long-sleeved top.

She was talking to Christian as they joined the lunch queue. As I was about to get in behind them and make my move to speak, I was elbowed out of the way by Lauren.

"Hi Christian!" she said perkily. "How are you liking Forks?"

I saw him and Hero exchange a glance before he turned to Lauren again.

"It's nice…uh," he stopped to try to remember Lauren's name. "I don't think we've been introduced?" I stifled a giggle as she frowned.

"It's Lauren Mallory," she said, annoyed that he hadn't known her name. "We have Biology and English together."

"Oh, hi Lauren. Forks is very nice, thank you." he turned back to the line and started picking out things to eat, followed by his sister.

"Can I sit with you at lunch today?" Lauren said to his back, cringing as the words came out. She obviously wanted him to ask her to sit together.

Christian let Hero go ahead of him in the queue as he turned to look at Lauren with a sympathetic look.

"I'd love to, Lauren, but-" he glanced over her shoulder at me "-I already promised Bella that I'd sit with her, and the table is already pretty full…"

Lauren turned slowly towards me, glaring viciously. I looked at Christians desperate face, and he mouthed 'please'. I sighed.

"It's true, Lauren, he promised me…" I muttered, blushing heavily. Lauren glared for a moment longer and walked away, muttering something like 'bitch gets all the good ones…'

"Thanks for that, Bella," Christian smiled, showing rows of perfect teeth. "You don't have to sit with me, if you don't want to…" I realised that this was what I needed. Now I wouldn't have to ask him and risk humiliation, I could just go sit with him and flush the secrets from the inside. This was too easy.

"No, Christian, I'd love to," I smiled.

"And your boyfriend?" he asked, eyebrows raised. I looked up at his face, over a foot above my own. He was smiling hugely.

"He'll manage…" I smiled back, playing along. "Besides, it's for the greater good."

I grabbed an apple and followed Christian to his table, where Hero was already seated, along with Andrew and Sebastian. But no Gala.

"Where's Gala?" I asked without thinking. They all looked at each other for a moment, as sharing a silent secret.

"She's sick," said Hero in her low, quiet voice.

"Yeah," Andrew agreed, "It's her time of month,"

Hero laughed, but Sebastian elbowed him in the ribs. He then looked up at me with his milky eyes.

"He's only joking, Andrew is seriously un-funny," Sebastian laughed.

"I think you're funny, Andy," Hero said, smiling slightly. Christian rolled his eyes.

"Thanks, baby doll," Andrew said, high-fiving her dainty hand with his own large one. She flushed a light pink.

"Okay, just get a motel room, you two," Christian rolled his eyes, pulling out a chair for me to sit on. "Bella bravely volunteered to sit with the dogs to save me from that awful orange girl Lauren, so be nice to her," he eyed the boys, "or else next time we wont have the nice lady here, we'll have the human tangerine!"

"Okay, bro, no Bella-jokes, we get it," Sebastian said, rolling his translucent greeny-white eyes. "So, Bella, tell us about yourself. You kept quiet at dinner last night,"

I had to think fast to avoid that question, I was supposed to be finding out about _them _not the other way around. Edward was sitting at the next table, listening in to their minds. I really didn't want to disappoint.

"I'm pretty boring, but I'd like to know about _you_ Sebastian," I said, looking at him in the eyes. They looked almost blind in their lightness… I had seen them somewhere before.

Then it came to me. Gala had the same pale green look about her eyes. How had I missed that before?

I looked around the table. Andrew was looking at me, but his dark eyes weren't flat black like they were the first day. They had a single white (or green?) streak in them, hair-like in thinness. And Christian had baby blue, freckled with the same light green. What did it all mean?

"Well," he said nonchalantly, "I'm Sebastian, originally from Chile, I'm 18, I like the great outdoors, women and alcohol. Now its your turn, honey." I thought for a moment. I had to ask something to bring up the memory of Hera Waters, and I had to do it subtly.

"Em, no, I want to hear about… Andrew first." I said. Maybe he would give some valuable insight.

"Okay, Bella, whatever," he said, looking at me speculatively. "I'm Andrew, I'm 18 and from Montana, I like guitars and alcohol." I was slightly disappointed, I had learned nothing from the boys except that they were alcoholics. My last shot was Hero. She responded without me even having to ask her.

"My name is Hero, I don't know where I'm from, I'm 17 and I like reading, parties and hanging out with my family."

"Okay, it's only fair that I go now as well, then. My name is Bella, I'm 18, and I like reading, hanging out with my boyfriend, and looking through some of my dads old unsolved case files. There's something about an unsolved murder that really gets my brain going." That got the reaction that I wanted.

Andrew choked on the water he was drinking, spluttering and coughing, Sebastian froze and stared at me, Hero paled and looked down at her food, and Christian simply said "What?"

"I like to read the cold cases," I said in a small voice. "You know, the ones from long ago," The atmosphere relaxed.

"You're a freak, Bella," Andrew said, taking a bite out of the huge sandwich on his plate. "Even worse than Hero, and she lives in a planet far, far away."

"Hey Star Wars is cool, you jerk, shut the hell up!" she retaliated and poked him.

"Can I please talk to Bella for a moment?" a smooth voice interrupted my thoughts. I looked up to see Edward's worried face.

"Sure, take her," Andrew said chewing his food. "She's weird."

Edward glared as he took my hand in his as we walked towards the door. As soon as we outside Edward turned around to me.

"You were right. I don't know how I missed what the are… the slow beating hearts, the animalistic scent, the slowly changing eyes, the fact that Hero wasn't in any of Alice's visions until yesterday, and now Gala's missing from them… Bella I'm so sorry that I ever doubted you."

"Edward what's wrong? Are they murderers?"

"Yes, but they're something worse as well… Bella, you have to stay away from the Batons."

"Edward what are they?!" I cried. He looked at me with terror. He pulled me close, and whispered in my ear:

"Dangerous."


	7. Pissed Off, Majorly

_"Protect me from starving,_  
_I'm eighteen,_  
_Protect me, you,_  
_I don't know what to do..._  
_Protect me, _  
_Demons that come at night,_  
_I don't know what they say,_  
_Their whispering sends the night air away,_  
_And makes me forget._  
_I hope they come,_  
_Again and again..."_  
-Protect me, You (**By**_ Sonic Youth)_

As I sat alone in my room that night, I silently cursed Edward and his stupid ways of 'protecting' me.

Oh yeah, having a family council about the Batons and them not even inviting me was insulting enough, but the fact that I wasn't aloud to know what it was all about was worse.

What were the Batons? It made my head spin to think about them… and it made my heart ache that Edward didn't consider me important enough to let in on the secret.

Christian was so nice. His sister Hero was so cute and sweet, and his brothers were fun and jokey. Gala was an ice queen, but I could over look that. Jeanette was so warm and motherly, she was so beautiful and kind, and Bassanio was a good man.

And they were a gang of supernatural murderers.

Was Forks really some epicentre for supernatural beings to meet and clash?

Was it me who somehow managed to lure them out from their dark hiding places into the open to harm the people I love?

I pondered these questions and more as I sunk into my pillow, and prepared myself for a night of restlessness. There was no way I could sleep until I was back in Edwards arms.

**xXx**

I was walking in a dark building. I was by myself, but I knew that I wasn't alone. There was someone else here, and I was looking for them in the dark maze that I was in.

In my minds eye I had the memory of a laughing girl with long honey coloured hair. The girl looked young, even though I felt I had known her for years. I felt a pang of hatred, and I didn't know why. I had a feeling that it was her I was looking for.

I stopped for a minute. I listened closely, and I could hear a slow heartbeat coming from the upstairs. I donned the stairs, and followed the sound down a hallway, until I was facing a doorway. I swallowed hard, and pushed the creaky door open.

The room was dark. There was a single candle on the floor, illuminating sections of the musty room.

And at the back of the room, hung a hammock.

There was a body lying in it, with one arm dangling lazily over the edge. The posture was casual, but I instinctively knew that the person was deathly alert.

The candle illuminated the silhouette of the body. I could make out a straight nose, the collarbone, the rounded breasts, the flat stomach, the hips… it was definitely female.

"Hello, Christian," came a low, sweet voice. "You came,"

I shuddered. The body rose, and the woman sat up in the hammock, her face still shrouded in darkness. She stood straight, and wore a red t-shirt and rolled-up sweatpants, with a pair of battered flats. Her face was still shrouded in shadows.

"I said I would," I said coldly. "Are you finally agreeing to our terms?"

I heard a small laugh, and the figure rose up out of the hammock. She was about average height, with a muscled build. I backed away slowly. I suddenly became aware of two other heartbeats outside the room.

"Christian, your terms don't work for me, m'boy!" she laughed. She walked into the little pool of light, and bathed in the light. She looked me in the eyes, and I felt my heart stop for a moment. Her eyes, thought I saw similar eyes every day, sent a shudder down my spine.

They were my eyes. Exactly the same pattern of green freckles crowding her once deep blue iris'.

I looked into her heart shaped face. I knew her, but she was different to the person I remembered in my dream. I got a flash once again of the girl before, a stark contrast to her now. She didn't wear her hair long and dark blonde anymore, she wore it in long dreadlocks down her back, dyed a shocking shade of platinum blonde. It was pushed out of her face with a green headscarf.

Her icy green eyes were lined in thick black liner with a flick at the corners, to emphasise their lightness, and to give her a menacing, catlike look.

"You've changed, Luca." I said quietly. She laughed a high, manic laugh.

"So have you, m'dear," she cackled. I shuddered with hatred, and took a step forward.

"Leave the area, Luc," I said with strained civility. "You've caused enough damage and ruined enough lives for a lifetime."

"I was already planning on leaving, Chris. Let me guess, Doctor Jackal sent you?"

"No, Bassanio doesn't know I'm here. I came to warn you, Luca, because I haven't become an inhumane savage like you. He's going to come here with Seb, Andy and Jean to talk to you, and if that doesn't work… well tough shit, Luca, you're done for. I'm just giving you time to run."

"Listen, Chris, just in case you aren't as observant as some, take a good hard look at my eyes," she said, walking up close to me, widening her eyes to allow me to see that they were almost completely freckled with green, and the cobalt blue that they should be was barely visible underneath the jamboree of ice green. "It should only be a few more hours,"

My heart started beating faster, and I began to breath quickly. I was afraid for the people of the town, but the reason was still foggy in my mind.

I acted on instinct. I lunged at the girl, shoving her up against a wall and pinning her there with one hand on her throat and the other one pinning her arms behind her back.

"Don't make me do this Luc! Why do you have to be like this?!" I cried. "Why can't you just accept what we are and not have to use it to harm people?!"

"Last I checked Gala was still hiding in Alaska after ravaging that young girl in New York," she spat viciously, struggling against my iron hold on her. " I hear her family are still looking for the body. Does she even plan to return it? I always return most mine."

"Leaving the bodies at the scene doesn't count as returning them, Luc, its called being lazy and irresponsible. And you know we can't return her without exposing ourselves. And besides, that was different, Gala didn't mean to harm her, she just wanted to know what happened to Noah,"

"That's why I say never get involved with humans," she yowled, and I felt a pang of guilt. "Keller!" she yelled. I suddenly felt myself being flung across the room. I smashed a small table upon landing, and looked up. Standing over me was a tall man. I quickly sprang to my feet. I had to look up to see the face of the man.

I recognised his dark skin and dark eyes, with only a thin rim of green at the edge of the iris. His hair was also in dreadlocks, which were tied up at the back. He was absolutely massive, tall and muscled like a bodybuilder. His dreamlike figure growled down at me.

"I think it's time for you to leave, mate." he said in a thick London accent. "before things get ugly."

"I was just leaving," I muttered as I walked towards the doorway. "Don't say I didn't warn you, Luc, along with your pack of ferals. This is the last time I'll see you."

"See you on the other side, darling," she cooed.

I sighed and left the room. Outside glaring at me was a tall, thin young man, who looked like a 1980s male supermodel. I stopped and stared at him. His dirty blonde hair fell over his forehead, and wore thick rimmed black Clark Kent-style glasses on his thin face. His attire was completely formal, with a crisp white shit and black pants.

"Ahh, Christian," he sneered, in a BBC London accent. "It's been a frightfully long time since we've seen each other. How are you these days?"

"Up yours Lars," I muttered as I exited the building.

My eyes shot open. I was lying in my bed, drenched in sweat.

"Edward…" I gasped. But I was alone. Edward was still at his stupid family meeting. I glanced at my clock. It read 1.12am. Why wasn't he here? I needed him… what was that dream all about? Who was that Luca girl? Why did she want to kill people? Why was Christian stopping her if he was a monster as well?

I couldn't be alone right now. I didn't even bother to put on any trousers as I climbed out of bed. I stayed in my long, holey t-shirt, stuck on my boots and got a jacket as I left the house in a hurry.

There was only one place I wanted to go, and that was a small reservation fifteen minutes outside town.


	8. Bella! Dont do that!

______

_"As I lay in bed  
I heard you.  
I need you,  
More than I want you.  
And I want you for old times' sake,  
You did not mean everything to me,  
But the wind was not cold,  
For you were the sunshine,  
And I was alone."  
_-En Midsommarnatts Dröm_ (**By** Håkan Hellström)_

(translated from Swedish to English)_  
_

"Bella?" I heard Jake call from the darkness, his voice thick with sleep. I felt guilty waking him, he didn't get much sleep these days with the pack and all, but I needed a friend.

"Jake," I said, climbing out of the cab of the car. He ran down the steps to where I was standing, and embraced me in his steamy grip. He was shirtless, as always. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, Bells. But it's okay, you're home now, even if it is at one in the morning. What happened, your leech leave you again?" I froze and pushed him away.

"No, Jake, it's not like that," I said coldly. "he's at a family meeting, and I'm lonely and need a friend."

"Okay, I'm here for you Bells, let it all out."

Jake and I walked down First Beach, hand in hand, like old times.

Except now it was pitch dark, the only light coming from the full moon above.

Edward would be freaking out right about now, wondering where I was. I hated his over protectiveness. But this time he deserved to squirm. He had left me and I was my own person, free to do whatever I wanted.

But it was ridiculous that he wouldn't let me go see Jake. Maybe visiting him in the middle of the night was a bit ridiculous, but what the hell. It was my life.

Had he forgotten that Jake was my rock for nearly a year when he had left me? I hated reminding him of those dark times, but he had to understand that I couldn't not see Jake.

I really missed him when he wasn't around. These days when Edward was keeping me in the dark, I needed my personal sunshine, my midnight sun.

I explained to him about the Batons, and how they were something but I didn't know what. He was quiet all through my speech, taking it all in.

"If it was me, I would have told you everything, Bella," he said, looking me in the eyes. "I would have brought you to the meeting, because you are my family. And you know how much I love you. I'm not like him."

I was about to protest , when suddenly I remembered that I should be at home when Edward came. "Do you have the time?" I asked urgently.

"It's around 2am, Bells. Why, is your bloodsucker only giving you strict visiting hours these days?" he sneered.

"No, he doesn't even know that I'm here, actually. But it is past midnight…" I said. Jake grinned happily at the thought of Edward coming home to my empty house.

"Cool. Do you want to come up to the house for a while?" he said, and then his face fell. "I have to go on patrol soon, so we wont be too long,"

"Really? I thought you only patrol in the mornings?" I said.

"Usually, but there's been some weird things going on in the woods recently."

"Like what? Is she back…?"I said, my blood running cold. The thought of Victoria returning…

"No, it's not a leech," Jacob said, knitting his brows together. "We don't know actually."

"Are you aloud to tell me? Do you think it might have something to do with the Batons?" I said. Usually Sam wanted to keep the Wolves business to themselves.

"I don't know enough about that situation to judge, and to be honest I haven't a clue. I suppose it couldn't hurt to tell you. Real men aren't afraid to tell their lady friends what's going on in their supernatural lives, by the way. And besides, you could ask your parasites it they know anything. When Embry was patrolling up nears the mountains last week, he came across something… unusual. He thought he smelled blood. So he went to investigate, and found that outside one of the caves there was… well, a lot of blood. Human blood. Like someone was slaughtered." He shuddered. "There were some shreds of a woman's clothes as well. Sam's been checking the missing person's list religiously, but the details are too vague for us to know who it was."

"My god, Jake, that's awful!" I gasped. "What are you doing about it?" I couldn't help wonder if it had been a member of the Batons family to commit the deed… they were cold blooded killers, after all.

"We're just patrolling more often. There's not much that we can do, Bells," he sighed. "Well, do you want to go up to mine for some food? I'm famished!"

I agreed and we walked up to the small house. All of the lights were off, and I assumed Billy was asleep.

"Go wait on my room, Bells, I'll just make us something to eat. Don't wake dad."

The tiredness was returning as I wandered into Jacob's room. I sat down on his bed and read a car magazine as I waited. Soon Jake returned with a plate of chips.

"Nice cooking," I commented.

"Just shut up and eat, Bells," he grinned.

We sat and ate in silence, exchanging the odd glance.

The tiredness was fogging my mind, and I unconsciously leaned over on Jake. His warmth was comforting at a time like this. He put the plate on the floor, and lay down on the bed. I yawned loudly.

"Do you want to stay the night?" he asked casually. "I could take the couch…"

"No, it's okay. We can share the bed, it's cool." I was quite frankly too tired to care. Suddenly it hit me that Jake hadn't commented on my lack of trousers once. Why was that? Once again, I was too tired to care.

I climbed under the duvet, as did Jake. I lay there stiffly for a moment, missing Jake's heat, before turning over and snuggling into his warm chest. He hesitated for a moment before he wrapped his thick arms around me. I sighed as he rested his cheek on the top of my head, and we drifted off to sleep together.


	9. Oww Nooooo My POKEMON CARDS!

**Heres the update XD Enjoy:)**

_"I like it. I'm not gonna crack._  
_I miss you. I'm not gonna crack. _  
_I love you.I'm not gonna crack. _  
_I killed you. I'm not gonna crack."  
_-Lithium_ (**by **Nirvana)_

I woke up shivering. I was freezing cold as I drifted into consciousness. I yawned and rubbed my arms to get a bit of blood flow into them, and then froze.

I was in Jake's bed.

The covers were tossed onto the floor, and I glared at Jake's empty side of the double bed. A small note was folded on top of the pillow.

_Bells,_

_If I'm not here when you get up, then I'm sorry. Got a call from Sam this morning, there's this weird creature running around the woods, and I have to go investigate. _

_Billy's out, feel free to help yourself to anything for breakfast._

_Love you lots,_

_Jake xxx _

I stared at the note in horror. I was horrified.

I had just stayed the night in Jacobs bed. Trouserless.

I wondered if he had 'done anything' while I was out, and my stomach lurched.

Since I had no clothes I rooted in Jacob's wardrobe for something decent to wear. I found some sweats and a vest, they'd do for now.

I decided to take a shower. I felt dirty… not just physically. I loved Edward. What would he make of this?

The hot water relaxed me considerably. I got dressed in my way-too-big outfit and stumbled into the kitchen. Jake and Quil sat at the table.

"Morning sleepyhead," Jake grinned. "Good sleep?"

"The mattress was lumpy…" I mumbled as I sat down beside Quil, who was munching a massive bowl of Cap'n Crunch.

"I hope it wasn't to hot, you kicked the duvet off halfway through the night,"

Quil snickered, and I glared at Jacob.

"Deflate your ego a bit, Jacob. I only stayed because I was too tired to drive home. I love Edward, get that through your head." I spat. Jake looked mildly amused.

"Whatever Bells," he said, rolling his eyes. "Don't you even want to know about that beast we chased last night?" he looked at me, all traces of cockiness gone. I nodded as I poured myself a bowl of cereal. "It was weird, Bells, I've never seen anything like it."

"Yeah it was _huge,_" Quil sighed. "man, I wish we caught it."

"It got away?" I asked, incredulously. Not even vampires could outrun the wolves.

"Yeah, it was fast. We thought it was a bear first, a big black one. But it was too tawny to be a bear. But then up close, we saw it was a wolf," he said, looking me in the eyes. I shuddered.

"it was huge and black," Quil said ominously. "With these luminous green eyes. Totally wild, growling and snarling, totally rabid."

I tried to imagine it in my head. A huge black angry creature, with glowing green eyes…

"Wait, did you say _luminous_ eyes?" I blinked. It was like something had clicked in my brain. This was all too familiar.

"Yeah, really light. Thing was wild, and fast, man it was savage…" Quil trailed off, poking his cereal with his spoon. "not even Leah could catch it."

Jake looked at me. "and that's not even the weirdest part, Bells. Before it took off, I lunged at it. To take it down, like. I clawed it right in the face, tearing flesh right from below the eye to its forearm. Real deep and all. But _no blood came_. It was spooky."

Before I could reply, and ask the billion of questions spilling over in my brain, Jacob's house phone rang.

"Hello?" Jake answered it. The he grinned. "Yes, she did stay the night. Very well, actually." his grin faded. "Okay, fine, five minutes." then he hung up. "C'mon, Bells, your leech is waiting for us at the border."

**xXx**

As soon as I saw Edward's car, parked and shining in the sun, my stomach flipped. Was he angry at me?

Edward leaned against his car casually, but his eyes were hard. I almost swallowed my tongue when I saw who was next to him.

"That's one of the weird kids," I whispered to Jake. "Christian." Jacob growled.

Jake stopped the car and we climbed out. I ran straight into Edwards waiting arms, and buried myself in his chest. "I'm so sorry, Edward, I love you so much," I whispered. He stroked my hair.

"I know, love, I know. It's my fault for being away all night. I'm not angry."

I sighed, relieved, and turned my focus to Jacob. He was glaring murderously at Christian, who was scowling murderously at him.

Christian looked furious, his big mouth twisted into a ferocious snarl.

"Jacob," Edward said calmly, as if not noticing the daggers between the boys. "I hear your pack had a run-in with Gala last night. I believe we have some things to discuss."

**Lova**g**e xxxxxx**


	10. Holy Moly, Like OMG

_"Who am I?_  
_Who am I?_  
_That you have brought me_  
_This far, this far_  
_Who am I that you have_  
_brought me so far..."_  
-Who am I (**by **Flyleaf)

It was an uneasy car ride back to the Batons'. Nobody said anything, and the atmosphere was tense. Edward drove and I sat shotgun, which probably wasn't the best idea.

Jacob sat in the back, as far away from Christian as possible, muttering to himself about 'dangers to the pack'. Christian just stared intently out the window.

We pulled up at the large house with the white picket fence.

"Come in, Edward, Bella," Christian said warmly as he unlocked the front door, completely ignoring Jacob.

The scent of roast beef drifted through the hallway, and low classical music played in the background.

"Chris? Is that you?" came the worried voice of Jeanette as she flitted into the room, wearing a light yellow sundress and a pink apron. "Did everything go okay?" she placed one small white hand on his shoulder, the nails painted blood red.

"It's grand, mom," he smiled at her. But then his expression hardened. "We brought back one of the Quileute shape shifters." he gestured to Jacob, who was standing nervously in the hallway.

She turned to Jacob, tossed her long, black hair over her shoulder and walked over to him, smiling gently as if not to scare him.

"Hello, dear," she smiled, kissing him on both cheeks in a European fashion. She had to reach up to kiss him, he was about two feet taller than her. Jake blushed under his russet complexion. "I'm Jeanette, its nice to meet you."

"Er, nice to meet you too. I'm, uh, Jacob." he stuttered.

"That's nice, dear." she turned to us. "The boys are in the kitchen, Bassanio is still out tracking down Gala. He should be back soon."

"What do you mean?" both me and Jake said at the same time. Christian shot a look at Jeanette, who sighed.

"All in good time, children." she said, as she turned and fluttered into the kitchen.

We followed her small, delicate body into the kitchen, where Andrew and Sebastian sat at the island counter, both with beer bottles in their hands, and Hero sat on top the counter, with a bag of chips.

"Hey, Bella!" she greeted me enthusiastically, hopping down from the press. "Nice seeing you here! Why weren't you here last night?"

"I wasn't invited," I said coldly. I wasn't invited to rendezvous with the killers last night.

"Edward, Bella," Sebastian acknowledged us as he marched past us, right up to Jacob. Sebastian was nearly as tall as him, and just as muscled. "What up, dog?" he snarled. "Let me guess, you're one of the Quileute mutts who slashed Gala last night."

"I believe I was the one who got her," Jacob snarled back. "I take it she was the rabid cur?"

"Boys, please," Jeanette said, with all of the strictness of a mother, whilst taking the beef out of the oven and putting another layer of glazing on it.

"I'm sorry," Jake said, glaring at Sebastian, "but I don't even know what's going on here. Nobody's told me anything, what are you?"

"Oh how rude of us," Jeanette smiled, placing the beef back in the oven. "Andy, start to explain the situation to Jacob while I put out the laundry. Seb, no fighting, you understand? And Hero, take Bella up to your room. Edward can stay and help Andy explain."

"Why?" I protested. "I need to know the story as well!"

"Just go, Bells," Jake said. I huffed and followed Hero out into the long hallway and up the stairs.

"This is my room," she announced as we got to the end of the hallway.

Inside it looked just like an ordinary teenage girls room, with matching dark purple curtains and bedspread, a desk with a computer, a large wardrobe and photos taped all over the walls.

Hero went and sat down on the bed, and smiled tentatively at me.

"This must be very confusing for you," she said quietly. I narrowed my eyes.

"I don't like when people lie or keep things from me," I said slowly. "What are you?"

She seemed taken aback for a moment, but then regained her composure.

"Lycanthrope," she whispered.

"What, like a werewolf?" I scoffed. I didn't mean to be rude to her, but this was just too weird. So she was like Jacob? No way…

"Not like the Quileutes," she said softly, as if answering my silent question.

"Like with full moons and silver bullets?" I said, jokingly. I knew better than to believe the common myths…

A smile crept across her slender lips. "Gala is actually the only one of us that transforms at the full moon," she smiled. "and silver only affects us immediately before and during transformation,"

]"That's weird," I said. "This is weird."

So the Batons' were wolves. Or lycanthropes, whatever. But they were murderers! They killed people! I had seen it in a dream, and Edward had confirmed it! Why was Edward so calm about this? Why had he left me here with one, alone? Nothing made any sense.

"Why do I keep having dreams about Christian?" I said, getting the biggest question on my mind out of the way first.

"Maybe you have a crush on him," the small blonde suggested. I rolled my eyes.

"No I mean in my dreams I am him." Comprehension dawned across her face, and then she blushed.

"You should talk to him about that," she giggled. I sighed.

"Okay then, when do you transform, or whatever? Why do you transform at different times of the month?" I asked.

"I transform a week before Gala. It has a lot to do with when you were infected. The 'full moon' legend developed because we only change once a month." she said, relaxing back into her pillows. I saw next to her on the bed. I looked her in the eyes.

"Are you dangerous?" I uttered. She paused and took a deep breath.

"Yes," I took a step back. She looked at me desperately. "But we would never hurt anybody on purpose!"

"Sure," I scoffed, remembering Hera Waters.

"Really, I promise. We're very careful, when our eyes indicate change is near, we don't come to school and exile ourselves."

"Why do your eyes change?" I said, letting my curiosity take a hold of me. Hero smiled, relieved at the lighter subject matter.

"It's got to do with how close we are to transformation. When our eyes fill with green, it's time. it's a good warning, so we don't just tear apart spontaneously." she saw the blank look on my face and added, "any other questions?"

I wracked my brains for something else to ask her.

"Why didn't Gala bleed?" I said suddenly, after minutes of strained silence.

"Huh? What do you mean?" she said confused.

"Jacob said he sliced her cheek last night, but she didn't bleed. Why is that?" I demanded.

She looked thoughtful for a moment. "She has adult skin. If you want to know more about that, you'll have to ask Baz, because I really don't know much about it." she sighed. "All I know is that I don't have it. that's why I make such a bloody mess when I transform."

"Oh," I said, trying desperately to change the subject. "How did you become like this?"

She stiffened and frowned. "I'd rather not go into that right now. To be honest, I don't even remember. I was in an accident, I only have bits and pieces of memories from my time before infection."

"Oh," I said again, awkwardly. "That's too bad," Hero stared silently at her grey high-topped sneakers. I felt the need to get out of here, and out of this awkward conversation. "Are the others done talking yet?"

She closed her eyes and focused. "Just about, yeah. Lets go." I looked at her, confused. "Dogs have good hearing, remember?" she grinned.

We walked down to the kitchen again. Jacob was sitting at the table between Edward and Sebastian, and opposite Andrew.

"…Okay, we'll keep an eye out for you then," Jacob was saying calmly. "we'll keep a look out for stray wolves as well."

"Sure the change only lasts twelve hours, anyways. You shouldn't have too much bother." Andrew said evenly. I seemed that all tension from before had evaporated. "And you wont need to worry about Baz, he's in full control. He could even help you, maybe." he glanced over at me and Hero, standing in the doorway. "And hero's wolf is a kitten, she's harmless."

"Hey! That's mean, Andy-Pandy!" she giggled, walking over to the refrigerator. "Want anything?"

"A beer," both Sebastian and Andrew said at the same time, and then high-fived.

"Want one, wolf boy?" Sebastian asked Jacob.

"Nah, I don't drink," he answered. Sebastian and Andrew exchanged a horrified glance, and Hero laughed as she went to go sit at the table next to Andrew.

Just then, every head in the room turned sharply to look out the window, Edward included.

"Supersonic hearing?" I guessed. Andrew turned to look at me seriously.

"Bassanio is home," he said coolly. "he's tracked Gala down. They're home."


	11. Does the Bitch Bite?

**Here's the update. I update because I love you, not for the reviews. **

_"I'm in the business of misery, _  
_Let's take it from the top._  
_She's got a body like an hourglass it's ticking like a clock._  
_It's a matter of time before we all run out,_  
_When I thought he was mine she caught him by the mouth."_  
-Misery Business_ (**by** Paramore)_

**_Gala Batons_**

"Be nice," he warned me. I rolled my eyes. When was I never nice? And anyways, I actually had a reason to be sour this time. It's not like I was mad at Hero for losing my favourite top or Andy for getting into fights with randomers. One of those Quileute mutts had gotten to me last night. Not that I even remember it, let alone felt it, but my face was still in tatters. I reached up to touch my cheek, and felt the three slices that went from my right eye to my collarbone.

"I'll fix you up when we get home," Baz said kindly. I nodded. Baz could do wonders. Nobody in our pack had any scars.

As we turned up into our driveway I heard five people in the kitchen, and two coming down the stairs. The words were muffled, my hearing was good but it wasn't _that_ good, but I heard all the same.

Andy, Chris, Seb, the bronze-haired Cullen, and someone I didn't recognise were talking in the kitchen. I guessed it was Hero and that Bella girl upstairs. I wondered how much she knew, how much she had guessed and how much Hero had told her. Her vampire sweetheart had probably filled her in, I supposed there was no use to try hide what we were.

I got out of the car and made my way up the path. As I was about to open the door, I felt Bassanio's firm grip on my arm. "Please don't be mad at the young wolf, Gala, he didn't know."

I shrugged his hand off my arm. "Whatever," I muttered as I opened the door.

A sweet, pleasing scent hit my nose first. I remembered it to be one of the Cullens, as I had suspected. Then, a soft woodsy smell mingled with it, probably the fourth person in the kitchen. I noticed how they smelled wonderful mixed together, until it was diluted by the scent of my siblings, and then lastly, the smell of human, the bitter-sweet scent of Bella Swan.

"Gala!" I heard Hero squeal as she scuttled into the hallway as I hung up my leather jacket.

"Hey babe," I said as she hugged me.

"Ouch, the face looks bad, dude," she said, inspecting me. I noticed a tiny rim of green was deposited just at the edge of the pupils on her brown eyes, exactly like mine, too thin for human eyes to see. I felt a small lump in my throat, as I always did when I saw that. She shouldn't have been exposed to this life.

"That Quileute wolf jackass got me pretty good. The slits are like a freakin' inch deep!" I said, trying to hide my total bring-down. Hero giggled and put a slim finger up to her slender pink lips.

"Shh, Gals," she whispered. "That Quileute dude who got you is in the kitchen!"

I snarled and bore my teeth, and stormed into the kitchen. The woodsy smell was reeking from the tall dark-skinned boy sitting at the table with his back turned to me, with his head on the table, as if ashamed.

Seb got up immediately as I strode over to the table, to give that boy a piece of my mind.

"Shh, darlin', calm down," he said soothingly as he captured me in his iron arms. I fought against him, pushing him and shoving, but I didn't do as many weights as him, he was still much stronger than me.

"Let go of me, Cruz, I'll bite you! Let me _go!_" I screamed, as the tall Quileute boy got up and backed away. He looked at me with his dark, childish eyes, the same colour as mine, apologetically, obviously taking in my cuts.

That really sent me over the edge. I let out a scream and bit down onto Sebastian's shoulder. I heard him hiss, but still pressed me closer to him, tightening his hold on me.

"Are you going to be good?" he whispered in my ear.

"No, I don't want to be good! I want to rip his face off!" I growled, glaring at the tall boy.

"Jacob meant no harm. We all know you're bad tempered in wolf form, he was just protecting his tribe." I decided that throwing a hissy fit wasn't getting me anywhere, and I relaxed all of my muscles, and took a deep breath.

"Okay. Lets just talk like civilised people." I said calmly, though in my head I was seething, the moment Seb let go of me I would pounce on the dog.

"Don't let her go," warned the bronze-haired Cullen with a faint smile playing on his perfect lips. It was as if he knew what I was thinking… he must be the mind reader Baz told me about. I had expected it to be the little dark haired Cullen girl.

Sebastian loosened his arms anyways, but before he could think I ripped loose, lunging at the terrified Quileute, but before I reached the terror-stricken boy I felt Sebastian's warm arms around my waist once again, holding me back from behind. I sighed.

"Okay, okay, I'm calm now," I said sarcastically. They would obviously keep on doing this when I tried to run.

"I'm really sorry," began the tall boy, Jacob. I rolled my eyes at him. "I didn-"

"Whatever," I cut him off, dismissing him with a wave. He could wait. "Fix my face, Baz,"

"Hold on, bambina, I'll get my bag." he said and disappeared out the door.

I glanced around the room for the first time since arriving. The Bella girl was staring at me with wide, terrified brown eyes. I glared at her. She flinched back, and I grinned to myself. She didn't give me a good feeling. I could always tell that that girl always had ulterior motives when it came to my family. I should know, I always knew.

Andy and Hero were sitting on the counter together, not touching, but close all the same, like they usually did. Andy was reading the back of a milk carton, totally uninterested in the girl next to him, but Hero was gazing at him adoringly. As much as I liked Hero, it was pathetic how much she loved Andy. Everyone knew it, even him. But quite frankly he couldn't care less that she was willing to throw herself off a cliff he said to. He just liked to lead her on, but the sad part was that she knew that and still thought that one day he would realise that he loved her, and that she was still trying even after all the things that happened between them last year.

The Jacob boy was staring at me with wide eyes, like I was about to bite him, which in all fairness I was. Cullen was staring at me with a strange smile, stupid mind reading jackass. At that thought he smiled, flashing rows of perfect teeth. I poked my tongue out at him, and then looked away.

I could see Jeanette outside the window hanging up laundry. She was so good. She took care of the entire family, made sure we didn't go crazy under the circumstances with her motherly charms, and kept the boys in check, which was no easy job. Andy had no respect for anything, and Seb, well, he was Seb. He ran feral for years. He was wild, and yet he adjusted excellently to out family lifestyle. Every family needed a mother.

Christian was leaning against a counter, about a meter away from Bella. He was nearly as pathetic as Hero. Bella had the most gorgeous boyfriend in the world. Why the hell would she want Chris? Edward was the image of perfection. Even I would admit that. Chris was cute, in a boy-next-door kind of way, but in no way could he ever compare to Edward, not in a million years. And anyways, Chris should have learned his lesson about human girls that last time.

Just then I became painfully aware of Seb's breathing in my ear. His arms were still snaked around my waist, pulling me close to him. My breathing hitched, and I struggled away from him. He knew that I didn't react well to touching. I knew that he was attracted to me, I always did. As I said, I always knew. But he knew that I never wanted to get close enough to someone to be hurt as badly as I was the last time I fell in love. Being left by the one you love wasn't the worst thing that could happen to you. It would be possible to go on if you just knew the existed, somehow, somewhere, breathing, living, loving… but if they never came back? What if they couldn't, and never would? The best I could do was to try not to think about _him_ and try to get on with my life, but every touch against my elastic skin was painful. Because it wasn't _his_ touch_._

I pushed away from him in one final and desperate attempt to get away, and he let me loose, sensing that I was at breaking point. Too many bad memories, flooding my mind…

I sat down on one of the ornate kitchen chairs and put on my most aggressive face. Anger was my only way to hide the stings of my past.

Bassanio came back in, with his big black bag.

"Sit still, Gal, and this shouldn't be so bad," he said as he touched my face with his hand, inspecting the bloodless wound. Adult skin really was one of the best things that had ever happened to me, it made everything so much easier. No mess when I got hurt, no hurt when I was a mess.

I felt all eyes on me as Baz wiped my face with disinfectant. His warm fingers probed my face on either side, adjusting the slash so it would be even, and then he pushed it gently together. I hissed as the stinging began when my skin touched, and I felt my skin healing quickly.

Bella gasped, and I heard someone exhale sharply. Baz proceeded to fuse the skin all the way down my neck, and the rest of my face. I bit down hard on my lip. Getting the wound may not have hurt, but fixing it was a real bitch.

"There, all done." Baz smiled. I tried to grin back.

"Thanks, Baz," I smiled, "I'd be a hag without you!"

"You really need to learn how to fix yourself, Gala," he said seriously. "It's a valuable skill,"

I nodded, and looked over at Jacob again, the focus of my rage, the unknowing victim of my timeworn grief.

He looked ready to puke. He wanted to leave. I knew. I always knew.

"You," I said sharply. He flinched. "You and me, I think we have some beef to sort out. What the hell is your problem?"

**I love you.**


	12. Sucky Sucky Suck Suck

**_Hey People,_**

**_Me here (durrrrr) I have some bad news (maybe)_**

**_Well you see, about three weeks ago while on holidays it was sprung on me that im moving country._**

**_Yahh i know, i should be like WOO HOO. but Nahh, i am happy, dont get me wrong, i just feel really sad cos i didnt even gor to say goodbye to all my friends and stuff. hopefully im going home for a week just to get my stuff soon, but meh whatever, I already bought new stuff. _**

**_But thats not my point. Since my muse for writing (ie my friends) are back home, i realised by looking back at the past few chapters of all of my stories, I SUUUUUUUUUUUCK. No joke, dont try to tell me otherwise. The best solution that i could come up with to better my writings is to just..... quit._**

**_So yup, that means all of my stories. I just picked Mercury to post this on cos its my fave, but i wont be doing any writing on any of my thingss. Someone observently pointed out in a review of 'Love is Colder than Death' that it was more interesting in the beginning thats what got me to sit up and notice what the problem was, and yahh i lost my knack. But whatev. thats why im stopping._**

**_Not forever, i hope, but just till i can sort my head out. im so confused atm, i miss all of my friends but they dont even know im moving yet. Maybe sometime in September il start again, but till them im... dead to the writing world. Meh......_**

**_:(_**

**_Hopefully ill get my spark back soon, but till then im gone. _**

**_Cos lets face it, my writing SUUUUUUUCKS. _**

**_Lets be adults here and admit it. this is so sucky sucky suck suck!!!!!!!!!_**

**_Anyhoo, lovey lots forever && ever! _**

**_Thanks for reading this:)_**

**_Until we meet again, (possibly september)_**

**_LBD xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_**


	13. Return of the Queen

**I'm back! I know, right? Wow. Its been a while:) **

_"But It's different now that I'm poor and aging. I'll never see this face again_  
_You go stabbing yourself in the neck..."  
-_Obstacle 1 _(**by **Interpol)_

Things change. Even when it seems unreal. Even when every stolen glance in someone's direction sends a tingle down your spine in realisation of what they are. Reality hits odd strikes. Sometimes you see but don't comprehend, and other times you just know what the other is and it scares you. But you get over it. Like I did.

It was strange how things had just fallen apart, yet came together, after that day at the Batons' when I had found out what they were. It had scared me. I didn't talk to Christian or his family as far as possible after I knew what they were. I know, it seems hypocritical but the idea of them turning into uncontrollable blood-thirsty wolves once a month scared the life out of me. When Sebastian didn't come to school one day, I had been so terrified of the huge black wolf I knew he was that I had made Edward stay over with me and not let me go until I was safely in school the next day.

The boys, Jacob and Edward, didn't see my problem with the Batons'. As far as I knew, Jake had tried to reconcile things with Gala, but she had taken such a bitter hatred to him at he stopped trying to make up with her. Sebastian, on the other hand, had taken a shining to Jake. Jacob spent a lot of time over at the house with the white picket fence, he thought the idea of 'real' werewolves was, and I quote, _cool_.

The Cullens also realised that they were a lot like the Batons family. They didn't understand my fear of the green eyes killers. The day after the fateful meeting in the house with the picket fence, Hero Batons came up to me to apologise. I couldn't even hear her words, I was paralyzed by the tell-tale signs in her eyes, the light green building up in her brown iris. She gave up trying to talk to me after a week.

But as I said, things change.

"Coming out tonight, Bells?" Chris asked staring at the ceiling, sprawled out on my floor. His books lay open around him, but he wasn't interested in studying. His blond hair lay in tangles around his eyes, which were a sweet shade of lucid blue, a sign to somebody who knew him, somebody like me, that last night he transformed. "Seb is going crazy in this small town. We're hitting Seattle tonight."

I smiled fondly at him. It's hard to believe I was once afraid of him. Christian was good. It was a couple of weeks before I realised that he was one of the good guys. It was Jacob that convinced me.

He told me a story that changed my view on the Batons. There was once a girl named Kirby, and she was from Montana. She had a boyfriend that she loved named Greg. They were in the early stages of their relationship, and she would have done anything for him, and vice versa. One night she started to feel sick, and of course her boyfriend was there to take care of her, because he loved her more than anything. She had a high fever, but they were hours from a hospital so he just stayed with her. The second day her muscles cramped up and were painful, and she had a splitting migraine. Greg called the local doctor, and begged him to come and look at Kirby. When the doctor said that it was too late for a house call, Greg was the only one who stayed with her and held her hand, reassuring her that she would be okay. The next day, she started vomiting blood. Greg stayed, and had called the local doctor again, but he said that he was too busy to see her, so Greg was the only one with her. He thought that she was going to die, and then suddenly without warning, she slipped into a coma, and was peaceful. Her heart rate slowed to the point of death. Greg couldn't bring himself to leave her corpse, after all this was the girl he loved, and she lay lifeless before him.

At this point in the story I had tears in my eyes. It was heartbreaking that the poor girl had to die, and I had said this to Jake. He just shook his head and told me to continue listening.

Three hours after Kirby died, her body began twitching. Her body's frame began to change, ripping and shredding her muscles and skin, spraying the room with blood. Poor Greg didn't know what was happening, and was scared. The girl became a fierce, bloodthirsty, neonatal wolf.

The next day, Caroline Kirby woke up covered in blood. She was too sore to move, she felt like her body had been dragged to hell and back. When she finally gathered the energy to look up, she couldn't stop screaming. All of the mirrors on the room were smashed, the windows broken, the furniture in shreds, but worst of all, her love lay mangled on the floor. She had killed him during the night.

The moral of that story was that that Lycanthropy was something that couldn't be controlled. Who you were as a wolf was not who you were as a human. It would make you a different person, make you turn on the people who love you, the people you love more than anything. Who someone suffering with Lycanthropy was only 24 hours, once a month, had nothing to do with who they were the other time.

This made me see that Chris was not to be afraid of, and I had been judging him all wrong.

"Bella?" he repeated, snapping me out of my memory.

"Sure," I said. "What?"

"Going clubbing, in Seattle," he said, turning around to lie on his stomach, and flip open a book.

"What? No!" I said. No way would I go out clubbing with a bunch of party mad werewolves. I had gotten to know them, and I knew well that they took everything to the extreme, and were all a little too fond of alcohol, even Hero and Gala.

"Sorry Bella, you already agreed," he said, taking out his mobile and began texting. "I'll just tell Seb to book a limo. No way were all going to fit in a taxi."

"What? I can drive myself, no need to spend extra on me," I said.

"Eh, Bella, no way you're going to be able to drive when we're done with you," he said with a puckish grin. "Get in you're high heeled shoes, you're partying with the animals now!"

I sighed and rolled my eyes. No way Edward would want me to go out clubbing with the crazy wolf boys. No way.

Just then Christian's mobile began vibrating. "Bonjour!" he answered, and then rolled is eyes. "Yes, okay, nice to know you called to talk to _me._ Okay. See you, Doll." and then he hung up. "That was Alice. She says to tell you, 'he wont argue, he trusts them.' What's that about?"

I shrugged and pretended not to know. "I don't know, Alice is kind of vague some times." I silently cursed Edward and his new-found friendship and total trust in the wolf kids.

**Wow just watching Bad Boys II! Just at the part where Will Smith kicks the KKK's ass! Omg I love him, Fresh Prince was amazing! Will Smith is so dreamy…. Hehe okay back to my story, what do you think of the Batons now? **

**Next chap is going to be out clubbing, tell me what you think should happen. Review and tell me what you think of the Batons. Like them? Hate them? I think they might get a new family member. I'd appreciate it if you'd like PM me characters, I have a name but I need appearances and personality and stuff:) **

**Its great to be back, because I love you.**


	14. Drunk & Pervy

**This was a fun chapter to write XD seriously it was fun! that's why it's so long! And its divided into two parts, hehe this is my first chapter of 'drunk Bella'. She's going to be in the story a lot as far as the Batons are concerned:)**

_"I'm going out,_  
_I'm gonna drink myself to death_  
_And in the crowd_  
_I see you with someone else,_  
_I brace myself,_  
_Cause I know it's going to hurt,_  
_But I like to think at least things can't get any worse."_  
-Hurricane Drunk (**by **_Florence & the Machine_)

"Where to?" Hero asked, rooting for hairspray in her black handbag. She really looked the part of an adult. A small adult, but an adult. Gala had done both of our makeup, and we were dressed the part. Hero wore a ridiculously short black low cut dress that hung loosely around her shoulders that dipped low at the back and the front, with pink high-heels to give her an extra four inches. Her eyes were black and smokey, just like mine. I, on the other hand, wore a tight see-through navy dress (which I wasn't entirely comfortable with, seeing as everyone and anyone could see my bra and underwear) that clung to my curves. To be honest, I felt like a fool, why was I getting so dressed up?

"Where do you think, Hero?" Andrew answered. "The bar, duh!" Andrew wore similar clothes to Sebastian. Both wore tuxedo jackets, Andrew's being black and Seb's being navy, over white t-shirts, and jeans. Gala looked spectacular, as always, in a pink mini-dress and killer heels, her long inky hair straightened and tied with a pink ribbon.

"Come on," Seb said, "We're meeting Chris later at the club, and I think O'Leary's should be a good place to get twisted before we hit the club around midnight," he said, striding over to a large pub-building, with two large bouncers at the door.

Hero went with him, with Gala close behind, and I hung back with Andrew

"So Bella, you go out much on the town?" he said, checking his phone.

"No," I confessed. "I'm more the stay-at-home kind of girl,"

"Jesus, I've been going out since I was barely fifteen, and that was a long time ago," he said, shaking his head.

"Andrew, what's your story?" I asked. I really didn't know much about anyone. Andrew would be a good person to ask because he was an open person. He said it like it was.

"I was born in 1985. I grew up on a ranch in Montana. I was infected when I was 18, six years ago. I ran away from home and ran wild for a year, and I didn't know what was happening to me." he paused. "I thought I had lost my mind."

"Oh, that's so sad," I said, looking at him. His floppy dark hair fell loosely across his eyes. He really did have nice hair, like everyone else in his family. Maybe it was a wolf thing. "How did you end up with Bassanio?"

He paused. "It was the first night Hero transformed. I was in Harlem, New York. Jeanette chased me all night, while Bassanio and Chris tried to track down Hero before she could do damage on the streets on NYC…"

"Wait," I cut him off. "Harlem…? Hero is… Hera Waters?" I stammered. How had I missed this? I think there was even a picture to go with the article.

"The one and only. Wait, how did you know that?" Andrew said with narrowed eyes.

"I… I had a dream," I said, blushing. I sounded like a freak.

"Oh," he said, and smiled. "Have you had any other dreams about our family?"

"Yes," I confessed. Now he would tell me how I was a stalker or a weirdo.

"Do you know why that is?" he said kindly, not making fun of me. I shook my head. "When Chris gets attached to someone, he sometimes transfers his memories through dreams by accident. Its not unusual for our kind to have little quirks like that,"

"Oh," I blushed. So Christian felt a connection the first time we met?

"That's why Gala is suspicious of you," he added. "She can tell when someone has ulterior motives,"

"I don't have ulterior motives with your family," _anymore, _I added mentally. "I really like your family."

He smiled crookedly, not like Edwards beautiful smile, but it was a nice smile. He ran his fingers trough his dark hair, pushing it out of his eyes. "And we like yours," he said, but then quickened his pace.

Sebastian, Gala and Hero were already going into the bar. The bouncer didn't even ask for ID. Me and Andrew caught up with them soon.

Inside the bar it was stuffy and full. The lights shifted and changed, and the music pulsed along with the moving bodies on the small dance floor. It was a strange atmosphere, I'd never been in one like it before.

There was people sitting at the bar, and at tables. Seb was at the bar, but Gala and Hero were at a table. We went over to join them.

"Have you order drinks?" Andrew asked.

"Yeah, for us. Seb's getting them, you go order for you and Bella." Gala said, and smiled at me, something she had never done before.

"What do you want?" he asked. I wracked my brains. I had never gotten drunk before, the only alcohol that I had ever had was champagne at my mothers wedding.

"Tequila…?" I said uncertainly. Gala rolled her eyes.

"Hardcore, Bella," he said and disappeared.

I looked at the girls. I felt like an ugly duckling. Hero was never beautiful. She was the shell of a beautiful girl, but was always only just _kind of pretty. _She looked like a different person tonight. Gala was amazing at making plain girls beautiful, like myself. But Gala looked amazing, capital A. I could see almost every guy in the bar staring at her, and her low cut dress and well formed curves.

"Drinks are served!" I heard Sebastian say, as he carried three drinks with him. He had two bottles of beer and some sort of green cocktail with an umbrella. Behind him was Andrew with a tray full of shots.

Hero smiled sweetly as Sebastian handed her the green bottle of beer, and Gala picked up her cocktail.

I hesitantly picket up a shot, and, glancing around the table, drank it down in one swift motion. The taste was bitter and made me gag, but I swallowed anyway. After it was down, I felt my stomach lurch.

"Wow, Bella, I cant stand vomit juice," Hero said. "Tequila is disgusting."

I smiled, and picked up another and downed another shot of the orange liquid, just to prove to myself that I could. I hissed at the bitter taste. My stomach lurched again, and I felt like I was going to vomit. I closed my eyes, and the gagging sensation disappeared. When I opened my eyes, Andrew had two shots in his hands, and offered one to me. I frowned but took it, clinked my glass with his, and downed it.

I started to feel numb. Was that was it was like to be drunk? My head felt lighter, and I felt more confident about myself. I felt the need to ingest as much alcohol as I could for some reason. I didn't want to be known as a wet blanket. I saw Hero call a waitress over and order another round of beers, and then Andrew added a round of vodka shots.

Hero had finished her beer, and Gala was done with her cocktail so there was no drinks at the table, so there was no reason for the silence. I felt like the silence was my fault. The Batons were a family, they had fun together on a night out, and here I was making things awkward. I nearly cried, and vowed to myself that I would liven things up.

The drinks arrived, and I noticed that the shots were clear now. That must be the vodka, then. I wondered idly if it tasted better than the tequila. Anything must taste better than the tequila.

Everybody at our table picket up a shot, clinked them together and drank them down. I was right about vodka tasting better than tequila, but only by a little. The vodka burned my throat, and gave the same sensation of drinking nail polish remover. I heaved with the taste burning my throat, and closed my eyes. I could do this. I could take the shots if I just spaced them out evenly and tried not to taste the bitter taste.

Andrew called for another round, and when that one arrived the same procedure was repeated.

"Oh my god," I said, as Hero took out a blue digital camera. "Lets take pictures in here! It'll be like taking pictures of ghosts!"

I smiled so widely I thought my face would rip as Hero snapped pictures of everyone at our table. I posed with Andrew, Seb, and even took a few very poser-like pictures with Hero. Gala looked amazing smiling for the camera with Andrew, and Seb then snatched the camera and began taking candid pictures of me as I drank shots with the gang. I don't know why I was so happy, but at that moment I felt high. There was a good vibe at our table.

"She's so fucking drunk," Andrew said to Sebastian, who laughed as I took a picture of myself posing with Hero. "Oh god, she's so fucking drunk!"

"Hello?" I said and rolled my eyes. "I'm only happy? I'm _merry?_" and then snapped a picture of the boys.

This time Hero laughed. "Okay, Merry, you should know that your more drunker than us. Bella, order a brewski while you wait for us to catch up with you with shots. Waitress!"

Five rounds of vodka shots for the others and two light beers for me, Hero was like I had never seen her before. I just had to laugh at her, she was such a pervy old man!

I moved so that I was sitting next to her, and I couldn't hardly believe the things that she was saying to Andrew. I just sat with my head on the table snorting with laughter at her.

Gala didn't seem drunk to me. Maybe it was because it was my first time being drunk, so everyone else (except Hero, who was a small girl like myself and also couldn't hold her drink like the rest) seemed cool as a cucumber. She sat and looked like a supermodel, drinking down her shots and also her sophisticated-looking cocktails.

"Whatcha drinkin'?" I asked as she sipped an orange drink.

"Tequila sunrise, darlin. You never had one?" she said. I could see in her eyes that she wasn't as focused as she usually was.

I shook my head. "Gala, I wish I was as cool as you. I look like a drunk loser, and you look like a supermodel drinking your shots without gagging and drinking your fancy drinks that you know the names too…" I practically cried.

"Oh, Bella, darling…" she said, and pulled me into a hug by leaning across the table, knocking over some beer bottles. I could smell her perfume, and feel her smooth skin. "You'll learn to tell the differences! I'll teach you! Waitress! Get me two tequila sunrises, pronto!"

The waitress shot Gala a look of pure poison, but scuttled off to get the drinks. When she came back, I looked at the orange drink in awe.

"What is it? It looks like my baby, I don't want to drink my baby!" I cried, looking at the classy cocktail.

"Babe, it's just tequila-" she began, but I cut her off.

"Tequila?" I said, distressed. The very sound of the word made me feel like puking.

"Don't worry, its orange juice and grenadine as well. Go on, try it," she encouraged. I took a sip of my baby, and apart from the guilt, it was amazing.

"Oh my god," I said. There's alcohol that actually _tastes nice? _why didn't anyone tell me?" I stammered.

"You should try alcopops," Hero said, taking a break from feeling up Andrew inappropriately. "Waitress!" She yelled. These kids obviously had no respect for the working class. "Get us another round of shots and one bottle of Smirnoff Ice,"

The waitress scuttled off and complied. When my drink arrived, I looked at it. Tall, cold, clear crystal bottle, whitish liquid inside, and even the name, _ice, _hit me like a brick. "Oh my god!" I yelled. "This is the Edward of alcohol!"

"Holy shit," Hero gasped, and inspected the drink, and then dissolved into a fit of laughter. Her laughter set me off, it was just so funny! She had such a young laugh, it was like _tee hee! Tee hee! _for some reason I thought it was the most hysterical think I had ever seen.

At this point the table was littered with shot glasses, beer bottles and cocktail glasses. Everyone at the table was wasted by half past eleven.

"We should get goin'," Seb said. I thought that I had begun to sober up, naïve as I was, until I stood up. My head swam, and I stumbled. Drunk and clumsy did not go together, I decided in a moment of clarity.

Andrew caught me by wrapping his arms around my waist, and steadied me. "Easy there, Drunky McDrunkerson," he said and released me, to go catch Hero, who couldn't stand up straight either. I noticed how his hands lingered on her stomach. He kissed her neck and released her. "Easy there, pretty lady,"

"Hey Andy," she said, and turned to face him. "Isn't that dude from the Amityville horror actually good looking? Gala says he's yuck, but I think he's sexy. I liked the parts when he was topless all of the time before he went crazy."

"Yeah, baby, yeah, if I agreed with you maybe you wouldn't like that too much," he said, and walked out onto the street. It was raining, as it usually did in Seattle. I could feel that I wasn't walking straight, but I didn't care. I was drunk. I didn't know what was going on. And I liked it.

**I wrote this watching the Amityville Horror, (class movie) and its really late at night, so yah I'm happy with it, but tell me if I should change anything! **

**So what do you think of my characters? Hehe Andrew the pervert? Hero the pervy old man (she's gonna get really pervy in the next chap!)? Gala who (finally) likes Bella? Seb the… well he didn't really do much but he'll feature more next chap! **

**Thank you so much for reading! I know this was a long chap:)**

**&& I love Youu**


	15. Yeah, baby, star wars!

**Drunk Bella part two ;) **

**oh and ive had a question from my no.1 reviewer JasperSAYSRelax128 (shes awesome cos she reviews my chaps and gives awesome big long reviews that make me smile xD) and yes, this story is Bella x Edward, AxJ etc. all cannon! And no, Jacob don't get lucky in this story either (buut... me thinks maybe he has a thing for Leah...? x)**

_"I hope that you see me,_  
_Cause I'm staring at you,_  
_But when you look over,_  
_You look right through,_  
_Then you lean and kiss her on the head,_  
_And I never felt so alive, and so.. dead."_  
-Hurricaine Drunk (**by **_Florence & the Machine_)

I linked arms with Hero as I walked out into the rain. She was a full head shorter than me, so I had to bend down quite a bit, and trying to do that only made me stumble, and that made Hero laugh her dorky laugh, which made me laugh, and that made me stumble again, and then the cycle started over. Andrew and Seb both had bottles of beer in their hands. Gala was being supported by Seb, and they were talking intimately to each other.

"So Seattle is great, eh?" I said to Hero. We were the only thing keeping each other up. "It's a big city, lots to do,"

"Yeah, Seattle's supposed to be like, big, and shit?" she slurred, looking at me with her big green and brown eyes. "But it's nothing compared to Coruscant, which is this planet that's literally at the centre of the universe and it's like totally a city, as in every square metre is covered in like skyscrapers and shit? And some of them are like a kilometre high! And there's no roads! Its all like air traffic and shit! And its got like the Grand Towers, the Skydome Botanical Gardens, the Galactic Museum, the Holographic Zoo of extinct animals, none of which Seattle has as far as I know. So I'd say I'd say I prefer Coruscant."

I stared at her for a moment, and then I burst out laughing. What the hell was she on about? "Hero you're so crazy!" I said, and then stumbled and fell to my knees. The ground, although wet, felt oddly comfortable. I lay down on the ground. Suddenly I felt uneasy, like I was going to fall, although I was lying down. I scrambled to find something to grab on to steady me.

I suddenly felt a presence hovering over me. "You know you're wasted when you have to hold on to the ground so you don't fall off," came a deep, Californian accent.

"Chris," I said, and sat up. He extended an arm, and I took it. He pulled me up, and I swayed. And then a wave of nausea hit me. "Excuse me a moment," I said, and bent over double and puked in a gutter.

Christian raised an eyebrow. "Tequila," I said, as if that explained it all.

"Come on, Bella, lets go," Andrew called. I got up and staggered with the help of Chris to our group.

"Lets hit the Dungeon Club," Seb said. "Xide are playing tonight,"

I wondered how Andrew, Gala and Sebastian could be so cool and sober while I was staggering all over the place and puking up my ring. "Who are Xide?" I asked, pronouncing every word. I believed that if I spoke slowly then I would appear more sober. I think I ruined it by adding, "I think my face is numb," though.

"Xide are the best cover band that I have ever seen," Seb said. "And I've seen a lot of cover bands in my day."

"You know," Hero giggled, and took hold on both my and Andrew's hands and began swinging them. "Andy likes the Dungeon Club, but I'm not really a fan." she looked at Andrew. "Sorry. But it's because the word _dungeon _reminds me of the pit underneath Jabba the Hutt's desert palace on, like, Tatoonie? I know a lot of people felt sorry for the rancor when Luke killed it, but I never did. Apparently on the planet Dathomir they've actually, like, domesticated them and use them as, like, pack animals, or even for riding, but I don't know if that's true…"

"Hero?" Andrew said, and looked her in the eyes. She stared back at him, slightly out of focus. "Shut the fuck up about Star Wars for one minute, please." he planted a kiss on her forward. "Thank you."

"I'll only shut the fuck up," she said, imitating him. "If you take off your shirt,"

"Hero," he said, and swayed a little while patting her on the head. "You're drunk."

"And you're sexy," she said, and stumbled a little.

"And I want both of you to shut the fuck up before I make you!" Seb said. "Get a motel room, jeez."

"I'll only get a motel room when there's a Toronto on Canada, you bastard!" she poked her tongue out at him.

"Hero, you're drunk!" both Andrew and Seb said at the same time.

"And you're sexy, and you're an asshole. Haven't we already been over this?" at this point I had made my way over to Hero.

"Come on," I said, putting an arm around her slender shoulders. "Let's go get some more alcohol into us, before there's a Toronto in Canada an I lose you to Pervert number 2,"

"Okay," she giggled, and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "To the Dungeon!"

The Dungeon was a pulsing rock club. There was a bar, a stage, a booth and a dance floor. There was people dancing to the choppy music playing, it wasn't heavy metal, or emo, or any of that screamo or rap-metal, but more alternative-indie with melodic guitars and smooth rhythms and a persistent electric guitar weaving in and out of the music pouring from the speakers.. I could see that the boys were in their element.

Chris and Andrew went straight to the bar, as Chris was still sober. Me and Hero joined them while Gala went to fix her makeup and Seb disappeared backstage to go meet the band before the show. Apparently he knew the bassist or something.

"What'll it be this time?" Hero asked me when we got to the bar. "I'll be having a beer."

"I'll have what you're having," I said. We got our drinks and downed them as fast as we could because one of the security guards wouldn't let us onto the dance floor with them.

We were dancing around when the band came on. I found that I could jump higher than I had ever been able to do down here. Me and Hero did a lot of jumping when we made our realization.

Xide were a four man band. And by four man, I mean three men and a girl. I wouldn't even have noticed the girl with long, messy red hair holding a bass guitar if she hadn't been talking to Seb on stage right before starting. The front man had dark blonde hair, that stood our at different angles messily. He held a black guitar, and was talking to the other guitarist, who was dark haired and dark skinned with dreadlocks.

"Hello, we're Xide," he said before plunging into the first song. It was very indie-rock, and I vaguely recognised it.

"Where have I heard this song before?" I yelled at Hero, who was singing along, eyeing Andrew on the other side of the club.

"They're a cover band, Bella. They only play other people's songs. They're playing this song for Seb, it's his theme song. It's all of our song." she faded off for a moment. "Do you see the red head on bass? isn't she pretty?"

"Yeah, she's okay," I said, still groggy from all of the alcohol, dancing like a spazz to the Xide version of some song. I tried to sing along, but I didn't know the words, so I sang my own version until I picked up the chorus.

_All of us, we're going out tonight  
__We're gonna walk all over your cars  
__The kooks are out in the streets  
__Oh, we're gonna steal your skies..._

"The girl on bass is so nice, Bella," Hero slurred. "I _actually _love her. She's like a sister to me."

I looked at her. "Hero, I _actually _love you as well. You're so nice…" we then hugged for ages, until the song was over.

Suddenly I felt a warm arm around my waist. "I just got a message from your Edward. He'll pick you up in half an hour." it was Christian, of course.

"Oh no!" I yelled. "I need more alcohol! Smirnoff Ice! Smirnoff Ice!" I chanted, and Chris sauntered off to get it for me.

"You have to meet my friend Bella," Hero said, leaning on me and closing her eyes slightly. "She killed her boyfriend,"

I was too busy reaching for my drink that Chris had bought me to really listen to Hero. She was too wasted to know what was going on anyways.

"Hero!" a female voice sounded behind me. I turned to see Hero and the red head from stage hugging her.

"Oh Bella! You have to meet my friend!" she repeated.

"Hello," said the redhead. I stuck out my hand for her to shake, but accidentally hit her in the stomach instead.

"Oops," I said, and blushed for what seemed to be the first time all night. "I'm Bella," I said,

"Kirby," the redhead smiled.

"Caroline Kirby?" I said, dumbstruck. I think I may have done the Macaulay Culkin _Home Alone _face, but I cant be sure as my actual face was numb. "I've heard so much about you! you're the reason I don't hate everyone! I think we both studied Spanish at school!" I stopped myself before I could word-vomit an more.

"Erm, okay," she looked at me suspiciously, and then turned to Hero. "any requests for next song?"

"Well," Hero said, and sat down on the dance floor, among many dancing people. I sat with her, grateful for the rest. "Celebrity Skin. I want you to sing,"

I pulled Hero up to her feet and stumbled numbly towards the bar again. "Two shots of whatever," I said, and tapped the bar, in what I thought was a grown up manner.

"Blackcurrant vodka," Hero mumbled to the bartender. When out drinks came I downed it, as it didn't taste like total crap. I actually liked, so I ordered another round. And then another.

I couldn't see straight, so I pulled Hero onto the dance floor and we danced together like complete idiots. And then finally, Gala came back. And she had three rolls of toilet paper with her.

"It's starting to get boring in here," she said, and downed the blue cocktail. Then she threw a roll of toilet paper at me, and then one at Hero. Hero caught hers on the nose, and mine just missed me completely. I tried to bend down and pick it up, but couldn't quite pick it up. Finally, I sat down and groped around at peoples shoes to get at it. When I finally stood up, there was white all over the dance floor. As I stared at the scene, I realised that Gala and Hero were wrapping the toilet paper around everyone dancing. I burst out laughing and joined in the fun. I caught sight of Seb and Andrew dancing, but they both were somehow topless with beers in their hands, surrounded by a flock of girls. I rolled my eyes.

Suddenly I saw a guy yelling at Sebastian, who was embracing a dark haired girl. It was foggy through my drunk vision, but I definitely saw Sebastian yell, and then Andrew throw a punch. The boys high-fived, and then Sebastian lurched forward and smashed the guys nose with his head before he could hit Andrew back. Blood spurted out his crushed nose as the man bent double, his blood dripping all over the floor. The dude's friends quickly jumped on Andrew, but he was a savage. Sebastian swung a punch to one of the other guys, knocking him out cold on the floor. People began making way for the boys to fight. It was two against four, but our boys had brute strength in their ropy muscles. I looked down at my shoes, the black high heels that Gala lent me, and when I looked up Andrew and Sebastian were laughing, and the other guys were being dragged away by bouncers.

Kirby was still singing her heart out on stage when the fight was over, and then suddenly I got the fabulous idea to get up and sing as well. I grabbed Hero and pulled her up on stage with me as soon as the song was over.

As soon as we got to the stage, I chickened out, but it was too late for Hero, who was already on stage with everyone staring at her. She whispered something to Kirby, and then the band started playing. Hero began singing, but it was very drunkenly, and a song that I had never heard. Suddenly Andrew jumped on and began singing with her. The audience went wild when they saw Andrew, as they recognised him from the fight. He had such a stage presence, even if he was a useless singer. I tried to sing along from side stage, but couldn't quite make out the words coming from two drunken mouths. The only line I caught from Hero was '_you caught me with my pants down,' _which she said a good few times.

Suddenly I was yanked, or maybe it was pulled gently, I couldn't tell. I had drank so much, and I was ready to vomit again, and every movement I made seemed exaggerated. When I was out of the club, I definitely knew it, as the cool most air felt good against my hot, sweaty skin. So good that I couldn't help puking in the gutter again.

"Edwards hear," a voice said in my ear, when I was done. "Go to him."

The next thing I knew was a cool embrace, and then I was in Edwards car, then black.

When I came into consciousness again Edward was looking at me worriedly. "How much did you drink, Bella?" he said with pursed lips.

I laughed and put a finger to my lips and shushed him. "Don't tell Edward," I said, and then realised that he _was _Edward, I dissolved into a fit of giggles again, Hero style. Then I realised that I wanted to be a pervert like Hero. I wanted to be as open as she was. I popped my belt, and leaned over Edward, who was still driving.

"I love you, Edward. And if you love me, you're going to do whatever I want tonight. And I'm not taking no for an answer."

**And that's all for now, kids! Finally, Bella's getting what she wants (maybe)! I love drunk Bella, she's cooler than normal Bella! I've been trying to develop my characters as much as possible. Have you noticed any changes?**

**Oh and if you want to know the songs in this chap just ask moi, okay? Because I love you =]**


	16. OmG Like Edward is SUCH a scheming perv

**Okay… Edward is a bad boy in this chapter! Very scheming, mischievous… hope you like, starts off with an EPOV!**

_"Weep for yourself, my man, _  
_You'll never be what is in your heart_  
_Weep little lion man, _  
_You're not as brave as you were at the start_  
_Rate yourself and rape yourself, _  
_Take all the courage you have left,_  
_Wasted on fixing all the problems that you made in your own head..."  
-_Little Lion Man_ (**by** Mumford and Sons)_

Bella stared up at me, her big brown eyes half closed and unfocused. "Come on, Edward," she slurred. I could smell the alcohol in her breath, but more importantly, I could smell the vast amount of alcohol in her blood. It tainted the scent, gave it a sour, gone off tinge, making it no longer as mouth watering as it was normally. How much had those wolf kids tricked her into drinking? How much had she taken herself?

"Sit down properly in your seat, Bella," I said as I gently but firmly pushed her back into her seat. She put up a token resistance, but then slumped back into the seat. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she passed out.

As we approached the house, I heard Alice flitting about inside. Bella was slipping in and out of consciousness, mumbling incoherently about the noble gases, and why they're the coolest.

Gently, I picked up the lucid girl in my arms and walked into the house. Alice was waiting to tell me something, so I rushed up and placed Bella in my bead to get back to her.

"She's going to be okay," Alice reassured me. I could hear Bella's heartbeat upstairs in her room as I scrambled around the kitchen for the food and pills that my love would need in the morning.

Alice's mind shifted to a vision of Bella, tired and sore in the morning. I frowned at the image, but it was one of those things that Bella would want to experience as a teen. Then it shifted to the nearer future, I saw in her mind a vision of Bella coming to consciousness soon, and badgering me about sex in ways she had never before. I winced.

"Edward," she grinned. "How are you going to get out of this one?" the smirk was puckish on her slim face.

"I love her, Alice, how to I refuse without embarrassing her, hurting her?"

"Edward, she wont remember clearly in the morning. Use that to your advantage," she said impishly, with a wicked spark in her dark eyes. I saw what she thought, and half smiled. The idea wasn't bad.

"Alice, what would I do without you?" I smiled, and grabbed her into a tight hug, lifting her off the ground slightly. I held her small body in my arms for a minute, her small arms around my waist. Since meeting Bella, I found it easier to express my emotions physically with everyone except Bella, ironically enough.

With her head still resting against my chest, Alice's thoughts were the only thing I could hear. The house was empty except for the sound of Bella's heartbeat. _I'm so glad you have her, Edward, she really is your perfect other half. She completes you._

"Thank you," I said before kissing her spiky hair, and released her to be with Bella.

She was sitting up in bed unsteadily, her shirt half removed, hair dishevelled, looking irresistible. "Edward." she purred. "Come," she gestured to the bed.

Alice was a perfect partner in crime, because you knew that the wicked plans she came up with would work.

"Coming precious," I purred back.

XXx

The first thing I noticed as I drifted into consciousness, was the light. Was it always this bright in the mornings? I shut my eyes as tight as I could, but that bratty light still burned my eyes. As I shifted my head to shield my eyes from the light, I noticed that the pain in my brain was unlike one I had ever experienced. My brain felt too big for my head, and was throbbing, and my throat was dry and my mouth tasted like vomit and bile. The makeup around my eyes felt smudged and sticky, and all of my muscles ached.

This was the hangover from hell.

I forced my eyes open, a difficult feat, and sat up. It was only as I sat up that I noticed my chest was bare. I pulled the sheets around my torso, and looked around, first noticing that I only wore black lace undies. _how had I gotten them?_ My heart stopped when I saw who was lying beside me.

A perfect, shirtless Edward, gazing adoringly up at me, lying backing the king sized bed. "Hello," he smiled, propped himself up on one arm.

"H-hey," I said, shocked. None of this made any sense. What had I done last night? What had _we _done…?

The last thing I remembered was dancing with Hero, getting into a car, lying in Edwards bed… trying to seduce him with all I had…

Edward continued to look at me with a goofy grin, like a boy in love. Like a boy after the first time he… "Wow," he breathed, and took my hand. "You were so beautiful last night, Bella," he kissed my hand.

I gulped. As far as I could tell, we had done _it, _the one human experience that I wanted. And I couldn't even remember it.

And Edward did. He was goofed up on love. And I was hungover.

This situation was sicker than I felt.

"Thanks…" I mumbled, and pulled the sheets higher, exposing only my back. I closed my eyes and focused on breathing through the pain in my head, and when I opened them, Edward was looking up at me with hurt in his ochre eyes.

"I knew it was a bad idea…" he whispered, lying back and pulling the white sheets over his face. "I… I thought you wanted to. You seemed to like it, I don't know I don't really have anything to compare to but I don't know… I'm sorry…"

He was distressed and rambling. It was so strange seeing him like this, so vulnerable. "No, I remember," I said, and forced a smile. "It was great. You were great." I felt a lump in my throat as I said those words. Our first time, and I was too drunk to remember. How tragically cliché.

Edward looked up at me and smiled, his eyes smouldering. "I love you," .

"I love you too," I whispered, with a sinking feeling in my stomach. "I love you too…"

**What the hell is Edward's plan? Did they…? **

**MMmMM... So I'm not really liking Twilight much these days... Buut i will stick with this because i adore Christian. =] **

**And I adore all of you who made it this far aswell, my dears =]**


	17. Dead Before The Ship Even Sank

**And for those of you waiting for my new story **_**Antics **_**I'll have final version done very very soon:)**

**ALSO: this is decated to**** the ever sharp JasperSAYSRelax128, bets reviewer, you shoud go after her examples, review wise, cos she awwesome xD**

_"It's way too late to be this locked inside ourselves,_  
_The trouble is that you're in love with someone else,_  
_It should be me. _  
_Oh, it should be me..."  
_-C'Mere_ (**By** Interpol)_

_**Hero Batons**_

The hangover was gone by twelve, but the sick feeling or rejection in my gut remained as I waited in the kitchen, staring at the clock, for Andy to come home. He never came home last night, which only gave two options to where he was, either dead or went home with a girl. Personally I hoped for death, but I knew the truth.

I was so confused. I mean, I want to let go of him...I wanted to let go of all this pain, but I was afraid I'd go insane wondering if it would work out if I stuck to it. He may realise that I'm the girl for him, but I needed to let go, I wanted to let go. I was going to let go. Maybe if he saw what he lost he would come back to me. I was the girl for him, I knew it and he would too someday.

I tried to read, but my mind kept slipping towards thoughts about Andy… it was torture not knowing where he was.

The front door opened, and with it the scent of Andrew blew in with the freezing wind. My heart stopped momentarily, and then burst into sprint.

"What's up baby cakes?" he said as he sauntered into the room. The stench of a womans perfume came from his clothes. I felt a lump in my throat as I looked up into his dark blue eyes.

He was perfect. I loved him.

Those facts were painful when I compared them to his reality of me.

I was his friend, the one he knew would do anything for him. He knew I loved him, but he loved other women more than me. He loved beautiful women, not weird girls like me. Maybe if I was more like Gala, gorgeous and sassy, he would look at me twice.

"Hey Andy, where were you all night? I tried to smile, but it felt fake. Andy didn't notice, he had switched on the TV and flicked to sports.

"Went back to some Brazilian honey's pad," he said without even taking his eyes off the screen. I felt the lump in my throat thicken.

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" I said in a voice that sounded small, even to me.

"Shoot, baby," he said.

I took the remote and switched of the TV. He turned to me to protest, but I cut him off before he even began. "I want to let you in on a secret. I'm not who you think I am. In fact, disguise is so thin, I'm surprised you haven't seen right through me."

He looked at me weirdly. "Hero, I know everything about you, what the hell are you banging on about? I know you better than anyone."

I looked at my feet. "Then why cant you see that I'm the girl of your dreams, masquerading as your best friend?" his expression went from confused to sarcastic.

"Not this again, Hero, you know you're not serious. You know well your not that into me, I see it," he snorted. Well then he was blind.

"Sometimes I want to rip off this façade, but I can't because you'll get scared and run away again. So I decided it's better to live with a lie than expose my true feelings. I may not be the one you love today but I'll let you go for now, hoping that one day you'll realise your feelings for me because I think you're worth the wait." I couldn't even look him in the eyes as I said that. I felt my cheeks burn, and I felt him shift uncomfortably.

"Whatever, Hero," he said as he took a beer from the fridge and went up to his room.

How humiliating. I went into the living room and lay down on the couch, wishing that maybe one day I would be good enough for him. Some day.

_**Bella Swan**_

"Bella! What a lovely surprise!" Jeanette chimed as she opened the door for me. I smiled weakly. I had to get away from Edward. It felt like knives that I couldn't remember the best night of my life. It hurt me to be around Edward. It physically hurt.

"Hey Jeanette," I tried to sound upbeat, but her mothering instincts must have taken over because she sensed something was up.

"Are you okay, honey?" she said as she let me into the house. The scent of pancakes and syrup wafted through the air as I took off my boots at the door. Though the scent enticed me, it also repulsed me slightly. The hangover was still hanging over me like a dark cloud.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said mostly to myself.

"Tough night, I suppose? My children are rough, it must have been hard keeping up with them," she shook her head. "I hope Andrew didn't talk you into doing anything ludicrous," I noticed a slight twang in her voice for the first time, and remembered that she was Norwegian. Her accent was a strange blend of southern, Californian and Norwegian, but it suited her.

"Bella! Baby!" boomed a voice from down the hall. "I didn't expect to see you so early in the morning!"

"It's five in the afternoon, Sebastian," Jeanette sighed. "Put a sweater on, darling, you'll catch your death of cold," Jeanette mothered, and then turned to me. "He was very sick this morning." I could hear the disapproval in her soft voice.

"How's the head?" he said as he ruffled my hair.

"Better, than it was," I answered.

"Aw, poor Bella," he said, and pulled me into a hug. It was surprisingly gentle and warm, not like Jacobs sweaty bone-crunching hugs or Edwards cautious icy embraces. I hugged him back awkwardly, I wasn't used to intimacy with boys other than Jake or Edward.

He finally released me, and I looked up at him, noticing the thin layer of green mist clouding his eyes. I had started to notice that all of the Batons had different patterns of green in their eyes. Sebastian's was a translucent layer that intensified over the month, Andrew's was thin streaks of green that thickened in size, Hero and Gala had rings around their pupils that spread out around the iris, and Chris's eyes freckled with green as the month drew on. I made a mental note to ask him about why the patterns were different when I spoke to him.

"Chrissy is in the garage working on the 'Stang." Sebastian sad as he sauntered into the kitchen.

"Is Hero with him?"

He turned to me and let out a short laugh. "No, Hero doesn't go into the garage," he laughed. "She saw a rake in the there once and thought it was a mummy with a machine gun." he turned and walked into the kitchen laughing to himself, muttering what sounded like _little_ _weirdo. _

I stood alone in the hallway, gathering my thoughts for a moment. Sebastian had just left me. I walked into the living room slowly, checking if Hero was there. Sure enough, she was lying on the black sofa. Sebastian was just sitting down on the armchair to watch sports on the TV.

"Hero?" I said.

"Bella!" she said and sat up, only to groan and lie down again.

"Hangover?" I guessed. She frowned and closed her dark eyes.

"No, I ate like fourteen oranges," she mumbled.

"What?"

"She was grand at twelve, but then for some reason decided that she wanted to drown her sorrows in fruit," came Seb, not taking his eyes off the TV. "And of course, with being Hero Batons comes great responsibility do everything retardedly, and that includes eating copious amounts of acidic fruits,"

"I sure as hell am paying for it now," she mumbled.

"O…kay," I said. I was starting to believe that Hero really was a weirdo.

"Don't you 'okay' me! I hate when people 'okay' me! Your thinking I'm a freak now, aren't you?" she sat up and eyed me. I rolled my eyes.

"You know what I mean, Hero," I said as I joined her on the sofa.

As we watched the football on TV, I couldn't focus on it. My mind was stuck on repeat of last night. I tried to force myself to remember. And I had no girlfriends to ask for advice… my human friends wouldn't understand the risks of human-vampire relationships, Alice would tell Edward that I didn't remember, Hero would probably start talking about Han and Leia's relationship or something, and Gala…

Gala would know exactly what to do, assuming she still liked me, or maybe that was just the alcohol. I was more than willing to take the chance of her not liking me if she could tell me what to do about my relationship.

"Hero, is Gala home? I need to ask her something." I said slowly, not to be suspicious.

"She's in her room, the one opposite mine." Hero said, staring intently at the TV.

I walked up the stairs and knocked softly on her door. "Come in, Bella," she said.

I opened the door timidly and peeked in. Gala was sitting cross legged on her bed, wearing a white dress that showed off her russet complexion, and her long inky hair was curling softly down to her waist. She was holding an old acoustic guitar in one hand and writing in a book with the other.

"How did you know it was me?" I asked with a frown.

"You seem to forget I have canine DNA in my veins. There are some perks to being a mutt, like the sense of smell," she grinned. "So what's on your mind? Don't tell me it's nothing. I can tell you came here to ask my advice on something important to you,"

I sat down next to her on the big bed. "It's Edward." I began.

"Ah, boy troubles. Good thing you came to me, if you mentioned anything to Hero god help you. She's sweet but a total loser when it comes to boys. You know, before she lost her memory she was actually a pretty normal kid. She even had a boyfriend, and was popular at school." she sighed and shook her head.

"Hero has amnesia?" I asked. That made no sense.

"She has no long term memory. She doesn't remember her mother, or her sisters, or anything before five years ago."

"Why is that?" I asked. This was weird, I started to feel bad for Hero. It must be tough to not remember the even the sound of your mother's laugh.

Gala paused, and put the guitar that she had been strumming gently down beside her. "She was in a car crash when she was sixteen, and was practically brain dead, her brain was so damaged. She would have died if I didn't help her. I didn't mean to infect her. I just needed to save her." I saw her dark eyes unfocus, and decided to change the subject to something less sensitive.

"So she ate a dozen oranges for breakfast this morning…" I began awkwardly. Gala didn't seem to even notice that I had spoken.

"She was in a car with my boyfriend. He died on impact," she hesitated. "and the only other passenger died in hospital. I needed to know what happened to Noah," a tear rolled down her cheek as she choked. She wiped her tear away and looked at me with a weak smile on her face. "You know, I never liked Hero, or Hera as she was known as back then, when we were in school together and she was a normal kid. I just thought that she was this randomer that my boyfriend hung out with sometimes,"

Gala smiled to herself, obviously remembering her lost love. It was sad that Gala had lost her paramour. I don't know how I'd cope if I lost Edward. That thought reminded me of why I was here, and Gala, being able to tell motives, copped it as well.

"So what did you want to ask?" she said kindly, and wiped her eyes. "Sorry about getting sidetracked,"

"Last night… we…" I began, and began blushing furiously. I had not counted the fact that this would be a painfully embarrassing thing to admit to. "Me and Edward… we…"

Gala raised one eyebrow. "Go on,"

I closed my eyes and decided to suck it up and get it out. Quick and painless, like ripping a bandaid. "Last night me and Edward had sex and I cant remember any of it and he does and I feel like a tool not remembering because it was supposed to be the most special night of my life," I said quickly, not opening my eyes.

I kept my eyes closed and waited for her reply, but it never came. I peeked at her, and she was looking at me with concentration, and was that a hint of a smile on her full lips…?

"So…?" I prompted. "What should I do?"

"Get revenge, of course," she said, and then picked up her guitar again. Now I was really confused. "Bella, you didn't have sex with Edward last night,"

"How do you know?" I accused.

"Okay… remember what I said about having doglike senses? Well, dogs have very strong instincts… I don't know how to put this… we can tell when people are, ahem, eager?" she said awkwardly. I blushed… she was straying off topic again. "And dogs can tell when a partner has been _claimed," _she winced, "And you, my dear, haven't been claimed, not like that anyways."

"Well that's a useless talent…" I said through burning cheeks. This was quite a humiliating talk.

"The boys disagree. They can tell how easy a girl is without even talking to her," she rolled her eyes.

So me and Edward didn't actually _do _it. But then again… did he ever say we did? It had just been implied… but it made no sense. Maybe Edward had suddenly developed a sense of humour and decided to mess with me… but what were the chances of that? I would have to ask him.

"My advice is to get revenge, darling," Gala said as she began humming along to the soft notes that she was strumming.

"I love Edward, I wouldn't want revenge," I sighed.

"Just think about it, okay?" she said, and scribbled down lyrics in her book.

I sighed and lay down on her bed. "So what are you at for the day?" I asked.

"Not much, I was just writing songs but I think we night head down to La Push later for some evening swimming. You in?"

Evening swimming. It was an interesting concept, except for the fact that it was freezing outside. "Erm… sounds like a plan, but I think I'll watch," I said. "But I think I should go home and get my things. What time will I meat you in La Push?"

"Chris will pick you up. He's just left for the gym with Baz so it'll be around six thirty or something."

"Sure, sure," I mumbled, and then got up. "We'll I'd better hit the dusty trail then, see you around six,"

"Sure, Bells, be ready," she cooed as she hummed along with her music.

Beach… it had been a while. I wonder how Jacob is these days?

**Just wana say that someone in his story doesent get a happy ending.... **

**If you have any problems with my storyline, do share I can change things if people don't like where this is going! This is all for you, tell me where it should head.**

**Also, on more thing,you would not belive the amount of alerts people have for this story.... but ad it to favs, or review, because i know well people are reading this! numbers dont lie, so please do tell me what you think, please:)**

**Love always,**

**Inverted Banana**


	18. My Mercury's in retro retro

**I'd just like to say to my new readers, welcome and thank you my dears for getting this far! thank you fpr reviewing my darlings I appreciate every little bit of feedback :)**

**This chapter has been written since, well hold on let me check… the 19****th**** of August! I've been waiting to use this baby, because sometimes I like to write random chapters in the hope that one day I can write them into my stories! If you look at the files on my comp I have the last chapter of this story written (it's kinda really heartbreaking) and all I have to do is, well, think of something to happen in between now and then and flesh it out! **

**Oh and once again this is strictly canon. Sure, Christian thinks Bella is one sexy mama, but she loves Edward. We all know that.**

**Oookie I think I'm boring my dearest readers, I'm sorry okay here is an epic chapter. Lots happening. **

**And the plot thickens…**

"Do you want to go to the seaside?  
I'm not trying to say that everybody wants to go.  
But I fell in love on the seaside...  
On the seaside...  
In the seaside..."  
-Seaside (**by** _The Kooks_)

Chris smiled. "It was awfully nice of Edward to let me take you out today."

I frowned to myself. Edward had no idea I was here. When I left the Batons' I went straight home, called Jake, purposely 'forgot' my swim things, and waited.

To be honest with myself, I didn't want to see Edward because I was thinking of ways to get even with him. I mean… that was such an un-Edward-like thing to do…

"Sure, but what exactly am I going to do while you guys swim?" I asked.

Hero was in the back of Christian's Mustang, sitting with Andy. She was quieter than usual, staring out the window quietly, only contributing to the conversation now and then by saying something quietly about zombies or badass cows.

"We're meeting Gala and Seb at the beach. It's a lovely evening, babe, be a doll and join us?" he said, and gave me a sweet puppy-dog look, fluttering his long lashes over his huge baby blue and green eyes.

I groaned. "I forgot my swim things."

"Hero brought you some swimming gear. I had a feeling you'd forget,"

Hero perked up at the sound of her name. "It's awesomely true, Bells, I have a bikini and a one piece. You choose. Personally I think the bikini would be nicest on you, you have a great figure!"

I rolled my eyes. "No swimming, please, I'll watch!"

"Sorry Bells, I'm going to carry you in fully clothed if you argued with me. What's it going to be?" Chris grinned. I sighed, defeated.

We pulled up at First Beach, and were greeted by Jacob and Quil.

"Hey Bells!" Jake said, pulling me into a hug.

"Hey Jake, Quil," I said, as Hero ran up to me with two coloured pieces of cloth in her small hands.

"Jacob, should Bella choose bikini or one piece?" she asked with a wink. Jacob and Sam had gotten to know the Batons' quite well recently, by being over at their house to discuss borders and transformations, but as far as I knew this was their first time meeting the rest of the pack.

Jacob raised one eyebrow. "Bikini, no doubt about it." he said suggestively. I sighed.

"I know, right? Great choice there, Jakey boy. Hey I'm Hero, by the bye!" she said reaching a slender hand out to Quil.

"Quil Ateara, at your service," he said as he shook it. She grinned and turned to me, a wicked glint in her brown eyes.

"C'mon, Bella, we'll change over there," she said, pointing to a large rock. I followed her small frame, which was dressed in a short black summer dress, to behind the rock. She handed me two ridiculously small pieces of navy cloth that I supposed was intended to be a bikini. The sun was going down, and long shadows were cast across the beach in the twilight.

"Navy is going to look awesome with your pale skin," she grinned as she pulled off her dress, so she was standing in front of me in her mismatched black bra and green underwear. "C'mon, Bella now is not the time to be prude!" she giggled as she removed her underwear and put on her own white sequined bikini.

"Eh, okay," I mumbled as I began to take off my heavy jumper slowly.

"Fine, I'll leave, but be quick, I want to go in with you, because I have no intention of going in with Andrew and Chris goes in too slow." she huffed and walked off.

I changed into my gear, and wrapped a towel around me and walked out into the open. It was an unusually warm evening, the sun casting a warm glow on my body.

I approached my group, which consisted of Jacob, topless of course, wearing only a pair of sweats, and Quil in similar attire. It was noting new to see them like that, the boys were always half naked. Chris and Andrew stood side by side, both in only swim trunks, Christian's being blue and Andrew's being black. Both boys were very muscled, I had never noticed before. Andrew had a great body, tanned lightly and lean yet ripped, with wide muscled shoulders and well developed abs. Chris was paler, and still muscled, but more soft looking. Hero was last, standing next to Andrew in her white bikini, which made her look more tanned than she was in the evening light. Her body was slender and soft yet not flat-chested, and her blonde locks fell around her shoulders like a storm of gold, and her eyes didn't look so flat with the irises lined with ice green. She looked like a freaky cat, I thought, but in a very Avant-garde way. She was not beautiful. Hero was never beautiful, but her personality made her attractive.

There wasn't even any vampires around and I still felt like the ugly duckling.

"Looking good, Bella," Jacob said, staring at me. I blushed.

"Okay, lets go in Hero," Andy said as he began walking.

"I'll go in with Bella," she said quietly and stayed still, looking at her feet.

"Come on Hero, you know you want to." his eyes turned wicked for a minute and then softened. "We can continue the talk that we were having earlier,"

With that Hero sighed, walked silently down the strand, climbed onto a rock that extended out into the water and dived in without saying one word.

"That girl is crazy," Quil muttered. "The water is freezing."

"I know, there's something weird with her," Jake added. "The rest of them seem normal, but the little one is psycho, she's like totally obsessed with all this weird stuff, including that dude in the water with her,"

"Heh, that's strange," Quil commented.

Chris turned to Jake and glared. "That's my little sister you're talking about," he spat. I had come to realise over time that Christian didn't like the wolves very much, and pretty much picked fights at every opportunity, something that was so unbelievably un-Christian it was unreal. He was usually cool and sweet like an ice lolly. "Shut your face before I make you,"

"Chill man," Jake began. Christian's face was fierce and hostile, his usually friendly smile twisted into a terrifying snarl.

"I don't appreciate you talking about my sister like that," he snarled. "If you ever say anything about her I swear to god you will regret it,"

"Okay, dude," Quil said. "C'mon Jake," they went down to the shore to get into the water.

I turned to Chris and stared at him. I had never seen him say a bad word to anyone, ever.

"What?" he said, still frowning.

"Nothing," I said quickly.

His expression softened and he pulled me into a one-armed hug. "Sorry, Bella, but Seb isn't here, so I have to be Hero's over-protective brother," he shook his blonde head. "Be glad that it's me here, if it was Seb he'd have broken Jacob's jaw."

I didn't say anything, as we stood there quietly, looking at the two in the water. Hero was a real water baby, and Andy was splashing her at every opportunity.

"She think's it's fate that they will be together. She thinks that he'll realise that she is the one for him," Chris said quietly. I felt a surge of pity for her. He was obviously using her, and I felt a stab of hate for him.

"Hey, guys," came a deep voice from behind us.

"Oh hi, Seth." I said, turning to look at him. "This is Christian Batons,"

"How do you do," Chris said coldly, and shook Seth's hand.

"Jacob and Quil are in the water," I said, pointing the sea. I saw Jake and Quil play fighting in the water, and then saw Andrew standing waist deep, running his fingers through his wet, dark hair, his ripped stomach glistening in the fading red sunlight. Hero was sitting nearby on a rock, tying her wet hair up.

Seth glanced around, and then waved at Jacob. His eyes went to Andrew, and then focused on Hero.

"She's pretty, what's her name?" he commented, looking at her. Chris shot him a glare, and Seth didn't say anything else on the subject.

"That's my little sister Hero," Chris said, glancing sideways at the boy. "And Andrew."

"Andrew? Is he her boyfriend?" said little Seth, not taking his eyes off the little blonde, who getting out of the water and walking up the beach with Andrew.

"I hope not…" muttered Chris.

Seth took one look at Chris, who was in over-protective brother mode, and added, "She's not my type, just so you know,"

"Why? What's wrong with my sister?! She not good enough for you?" he turned to Seth, who was looking scared.

"Hi guys!" cried Hero as she ran up the beach. "Hi, I'm Hero! There's a chance I met you like five minutes ago so in case you're Quil I say I'm sorry," she said to Seth, who smiled and laughed, as if wondering is she was for real. I fought the urge to tell him that she was for real, the whole freaky package.

"Seth, and no, I'm not Quil" he shook her hand, and then turned to me. "Tell the other's that Leah is in the forest looking for her clothes, I think she lost them again, so don't be surprised if you see her naked on the beach looking," he rolled his eyes.

"Oh really?" Andrew said suspiciously, and raised his eyebrows. "I think I'll go look for Seb," he said, and walked the opposite direction that Seb would come from.

I turned to Hero to ask her if she wanted to go in, but she was already walking away in the opposite direction of Andrew, looking down. I turned to Chris to ask what her problem was, but I stopped when I saw the murderous big brother look on his face again. It scared me. "Fuck Andrew anyways. He's been nothing but trouble since he came to us," he muttered. "Could you go and see how she is?" he palmed his face and sat down in the sand muttering about how Seb should be here.

I found Hero sitting behind a rock, with her arms around her knees and a cigarette in her mouth.

"Hero, where did you get that cigarette?" I asked in surprise. She definitely hadn't had it a moment ago.

She ignore that question. "I hate him, Bella," she whispered before I even sat down in the wet sand. "He likes everyone but me,"

"Screw him, Hero, he's not worth it." I began, wondering where she got the light. "Some day you'll find someone who-"

She cut me off. "No, Bella, don't you even dare say it to me. Don't you _dare_." she looked up at me. "It will never happen, so don't say it." she put her head down and took the cigarette between her fingers, blowing smoke out her nostrils. I had never seen her smoke before.

I sighed. "It will, Hero. I never thought it would happen to me, but it did-"

She cut me off again. "But I'm not like you!" she cried. "I'm not pretty like you! I'm not charmingly clumsy like you! My blood sings to no one because it's tainted with a virus that makes me into a freak! I'm always _just a friend. _I don't want to be the friend. Just once I want someone to look at me right away and think I was beautiful. Not after they get to know me, or after they see inside my soul, just me. I want to walk in a room and light up, not blend in and be ignored." she had tears in her eyes. Her fingers were pinching the filter of the cigarette roughly before she took a deep drag.

I was quiet for a moment. "Why do you let him hurt you so much?" I whispered.

"I really think there's a reason that I like him so much. Like something is telling me not to let him go. Every time I follow my heart...it leads me to him. I mean...what other explanation is there? Why is it that he is all I can think about? Why is it that no matter how upset I am...I see him and I can't help but smile? Why is it that when he smiles at me I get that feeling in my stomach? And even when he'd broken my heart, and hurt me as much as anyone could ever hurt me, when he lied to me, and I hated him, why then did I still feel those same feelings? Answer me that, and then I'll tell you why I let him hurt me so much."

I felt awkward, I had no experience with girl friends. I had no advice to give her, so I just sat with her, and took her small hand in mine. The one that was not occupied with the cigarette that she seemed to be ravaging.

"And I pilfered them from Andy. He had them in his pocket." I nodded solemnly and we sat there together for a while.

After a while she spoke again. "Someone asked me the other day if my glass was half empty or half full. I was going to say it's empty, but that's not completely true. My life isn't void and I have my happy moments; but they usually just seem to disappear, or get worse. So, my glass is cracked." she paused and looked at me. "Yes, cracked. It gets filled up with happiness and hope, but it always ends up escaping my grasp. It always ends up empting out. It will never be full because it's always leaking. And one day, it will get thrown away, because no one wants a broken glass."

**xXx**

When the darkness finally fell, she suddenly straightened up and walked out from where we were sitting. She had gone through three more cigarettes silently, and I couldn't help but wonder why she wasn't coughing and throwing up, like I did the first and only time I smoked, behind my house in Phoenix, when I was fourteen. The other's had started up a fire, and from what I could tell they were roasting marshmallows and drinking something. I could see Christian's silhouette with his wild hair, Sebastian's muscled profile, four Quileute boys and someone who could either be Leah or Gala.

"Sorry about my freak out," Hero said quietly.

"Don't worry honey," said the girl who had turned out to be Gala, "take a seat, grab a beer,"

We all sat around the fire silently, sipping out cold beers, not speaking to each other. The Quileute boys, Quil, Jake and Seth, looked like they hadn't relaxed in days. Quil was pouring beer after beer into himself, Jake was already on his third (Seb had obviously convinced him to give up his vows of sobriety) but Seth drank soda because he was still young. Myself, I was on my second beer and not feeling it yet, drinking slowly, savouring the flavour, and Chris was drinking leisurely while dealing out bottles from the cooler that Seb brought. Contrastingly, Hero had a bottle of what looked like flavoured vodka that she wasn't sharing, pouring it into herself silently, without mercy. Christian apprised her with brotherly eyes as she continued to light up cigarettes every now and then, but didn't say anything.

"Oh no," Quil said suddenly.

"That bastard…" Chris spat under his breath. Gala hissed and Hero dropped her vodka bottle, which was empty, and burned herself on the chin with her cigarette without even noticing.

"What's going on…" I began, but then I heard the voices.

"I cannot believe you would do this to me," a deep voice said, through what sounded like tears. The voices were getting closer. "I thought you… you…"

"I'm sorry," came the voice of Leah. "It just happened."

I saw the shapes of three people approaching us, but came to a sudden halt. "I cant understand why this is happening…"

"Embry, I'm sorry, _it just happened. _And I don't remember us officially being an _us_. It was just a bit of fun." Leah said coldly.

"But…" Embry began again.

"Man up and get over it," came the third voice. As the words came out, I heard a whimper from Hero. Seb put an arm around her. Andrew was heartless.

"I have to go," came Leah, and she started walking away.

"Wait…" Embry said as he followed her.

"No, Embry, go," she said harshly.

"Exactly-" Andrew began.

"You too," she hissed and stormed off.

Andrew shrugged and sauntered over to our group. "What?" he said as he sat down, all eyes on him.

"You're unbelievable," Embry was saying as he stormed over. There was fire in his dark eyes as he glared down at Andrew, who was looking indifferent.

"Listen, bro, she never mentioned a boyfriend, be mad at her, I'm just the catalyst in this reaction. It was going to happen sooner or later."

Embry's lip quivered, but he composed himself. The whole camp was silent, but the silence was shattered suddenly by Hero getting up, and throwing her bottle at the ground, smashing it. "You're an asshole, Andy, go rot in a ditch," she hissed, and swaggered past everyone. She stopped at Andy, and spat in his face. "You make me sick."

"Who pissed in your cornflakes?" Andrew retorted, wiping the spittle off his face.

Everyone was now staring at Hero. Embry looked the most shocked, as far as I knew he had never seen her before. This was a truly bad first impression, drunk, smoky and insane. I would have to mention to him that Hero was lovely the next time I saw him.

She gave him a poisonous look before she shoved him out of her way drunkenly with her small hands. "Outta my way," she muttered as she stormed off.

"Wait!" he yelled after her as she broke into a sprint. "Its dangerous out there!" Hero didn't react to him, she was past reason.

The focus returned to Andrew. "Fuck off, Seb," he said, apprising Sebastian's brutal blind gaze.

The camp was filled with a murderously angry silence, everyone was glaring at Andrew.

Everyone except Embry, who was staring off into the darkness. "I don't even know your name," he whispered, but his voice was lost in the wind.

**Can anyone guess what has just happened in the magical world of Mercury? **

**Reviews make me a happy bear. Oh and I have this badcore awesome blog also, just ask for the link if your interested in the real life of Oh Inverted World, I'm sure I'll mention news about the story in it, as well as a load of shit that happens to me in my madcore everyday life! Serially. I usually have better things to do than write, I just do that when its 3.19 am and my kittens are yelling at me. **

…**Anyways. Let's end this on a positive note.**

**Humming birds. I love you. Beautiful. Barbie. Grá. Dresses. Sunshine. Heels. Kurt Cobain. Kele. Dolly Girl. Cháirde. Healing. Friends. Birthday. Tears of Joy. Marigold. Dreaming. Brother. Swans. Converse. Pearls. Stay Positive. Beer. iPod. Lake. Sister. Soul brother. Mintuu. Bikini. Grace. Kittens. Harry Potter. Bears. Clothes. Bed. Buddha. Nirvana. Yes. Dad. Courtney. Roses. Darling. Mascara. Perfume. Science. Texts. Loved. Boys. Snuggling. Warm. Snow. Sunglasses. Photos. Green.**

**Memories.**

**Peace. Love. Empathy.**

**Oh Inverted World.**


	19. Two Words: Nice Ass

**Strictly Canon. I'd just like to say that the main difference between this story and Twilight is (apart from the wolfies) that Bella actually has a life outside Edward. Shock horror! She has REAL PEOPLE FEELINGS!! And hangs out with non-vampires!!**

**This chapterface is just a filler. Just, you know, setting up for the next chap, where lots and lots happens.**

**…you know. Stuff.**

**This is set two month after the last chapter.**

_"This is not the time, the time to start a new love,_  
_This is not the time, the time to sign a lease._  
_Try not to worry about what's forgotten,_  
_Try not to worry about what's being missed,"_  
-Mercury (**by **_Bloc Party_)

"I like school," Hero smiled. "It makes me feel… powerful." She grinned in a psychotic way, and i rolled my eyes, as I did so often when I was with her.

"How does that make any sense at all?" I said, glancing at her as we walked up from the car park to the school in the rain. She was so weird sometimes.

Before Hero could reply, the hem of my trousers got caught on my boots, tripping me and tossing me backwards in my vain attempt to steady myself. I waited for the impact of the fall to hit me…

And landed ass first in a mud puddle, seriously spraining my coccyx.

"You are such a fucking loser," Hero grinned, and kept walking.

**xXx**

"Miss Swan, what is the difference between Socialism and Liberalism?" Came the sharp, nasal voice of ms. Jefferson.

I jumped. I hadn't been expecting any questions, where I was, far, far away in my own little dream world. The class turned to stare at me, and at this moment I regretted Edward not being in this class. A while ago I had realised that Edward wasn't the only thing I had to live for, and it was giving me a bad image to be with him all of the time.

"Erm, it's… it's that… uh…" I hedged, trying to buy some time. I knew it was useless. I had no idea what she was talking about. I glanced at Jessica and Lauren giggling at me out of the corner of my eye, and had the urge to flip them off. It was strange how much I had changed in the last two months.

"Pay more attention," she snapped, and turned to find a new victim. I followed her eyes and saw them stop at Hero, sitting at the back and glaring at her phone under the table.

Just then my own phone vibrated, making me jump again.

'_Tell Jake to make that FREAK Embry stop stalking me. It's kinda really terrifying. And weird. Even for me. Hero Batons. That's a new record.'_

I wondered silently what he had done this time. It was unreal the intense dislike Hero had taken to Embry after he Imprinted.

"Miss Hero Batons," Jefferson said with an evil smile on her lips. "Is there anything you'd like to share with the class?"

It was well known that Henriette Jefferson despised the Batons family, all except for the Doctor and Sebastian. According to Gala it was obvious that she was longing for dr. Bassanio all the way through the PTA meeting a month ago, and teaching Seb, no matter how disruptive, was her guilty pleasure.

"Not particularly, no," she said, not even looking up.

"Give me your phone," she snapped. I saw Hero sigh, and then hand it to her. When Jefferson turned around, Hero mouthed '_Listen to this_,' and rolled her eyes.

"Listen up class," she began, and took off her thick glasses, putting them on her desk. "'_Hero, how are you? I'm just texting to let you know that I'm still here, and I can see you whenever you want to see me. I'm pretty much free all the time these days, waiting for you to want to see me. Just… call. Or whatever. I'm still going to be here in a year. I'll wait forever. I'll see you anyways next week. Not that you'll remember it… but still. I might stop by at your place tonight, if it's okay? Love, Embry._'"

The class was silent for a moment, then there was some small laughter and whispering.

"What, has nobody in this room ever been stalked?" Hero huffed. "And if your not going to give that back, I'd appreciate it if you just texted him and told him to stay away from my house,"

"I will keep your phone, miss Batons, but it will remain switched off. Miss Fredricks, the difference between Socialism and Liberalism, please,"

"But ms. Jefferson!" Hero objected. "My father won't be so happy with you if I don't have my phone to call him after school! And Sebastian will be more than a little angry if my stalker shows up in the middle of the night!"

Jefferson looked a little flustered for a moment. "Very well, miss Batons, if this happens again I will take it for longer."

Hero smiled at me, very puckishly, as she got her phone back. She was good at playing to her advantages, I would give her that.

**xXx**

Ever since becoming tight with Chris, I had the urge to enjoy the human aspects of life. Lunch was no longer a vampire affair. Sometimes I even sat with Mike, meaning that I sat with Jessica and Lauren too. Hero, for some inexplicable reason, really liked Mike. In a friendly way, that is. If it was up to her we would sit with their group every day, despite the frosty demure of Jessica and Lauren. Since I was with Hero and Gala most of the time, that was where I sat as well. Alice would frequently join us, thrilled by the human interaction. Seb and Andrew, still not seeing eye to eye, both sat at a table with the Jocks. They somehow became star football players after joining the team a month ago.

"Hey, Jessica!" Hero said as she sat down next to her, as if they were best pals. "What's up today?"

Jessica smiled, but it seemed false. "Not much, _Hero,_" she said. Whenever she said Hero's name, she always said it in a way that implied that she was making fun of it. "How about you? I hear they're making a new Star Wars movie. You should audition," Lauren sniggered. Hero looked puzzled.

"Jess, you really need to get better sources for things like this. If they were making a new Star Wars movie, I think I'd be the first to know about it," she said, giving Jessica a look that implied that she was mentally incompetent.

"And why is that? How many restraining orders do you have from former cast members?"

"Four," she said seriously. Mike laughed and Gala smiled. "You know, Jessica, I don't quite care for your attitude,"

"Oh, how terrible." she said sarcastically. Lauren sniggered. She was never one to say anything to anyone's face.

"You know, I _was _going to invite you to my party next week, but now, I don't think so," she huffed. Hero picked up her tray of uneaten food, and strode over to the Cullen's table, and sat beside Alice. I followed her, glancing at Jessica's dumb expression.

"Hero, what are you playing at?" I hissed, sitting between her and Edward.

"Had to make a dramatic exit. And I needed to talk to Alice. I have a party to plan."

**xXx**

"It would be really nice to see you this weekend, Bella, if your free," came Angela's sweet voice from beside me. Hanging out with my human friends was nice sometimes. I had forgotten just how much I missed them.

"Sure, Ang, what do you have in mind?" I responded.

"I'm free too, maybe I could join you as well? It's been too long since we hung out, Bells," came Jessica. I wondered if she wanted to score an invite to the party that Hero may or may not be throwing, or if she genuinely missed me. I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"Of course, Jess. How about going to lunch on Saturday?" I suggested. Lunch was nothing I could do with any of my friends these days, the wolfish ones either ate too much or had a liquid lunch, and the sparkly ones didn't eat, full stop.

"Heads up!" I heard someone yell in the distance, suddenly, and before I knew it I had caught a football square in the face. I hissed and bent over double, clutching at my nose. A wet, sticky substance dribbled down my hands, and before I could react to the pain my mind registered another urgent thought.

_Edward can't be here._

I heard my friends fussing about, and some boys running over, but all I could do was hope that Edward wasn't here. This was bad. Really bad. I started to back away, to afraid to look up.

"I'll just take her," came a deep voice, and before I knew it I was being lifted by a pair of strong, sweltering arms. I knew it wasn't Jacob. I would know him anywhere. And the scent of this one… it was different.

"Embry?" I said, shocked.

"I had to get you away form those leeches looking at you like dinner. I just… happened to be in the area."

"Stalking Hero," I clarified. He sighed.

"I'm not stalking her. I'm just looking out for her."

"By stalking her," I added.

"I'm going over to her house tonight," he said, and put me down next to him, and handed me a tissue to clean myself up.

"Do it late. She's the only one in her house with insomnia. She'll be the only one up at three in the morning." I cant believe I was giving tips on finding one of my best friends to her stalker. She was going to stake me in the heart for this one.

"Thanks Bells," he said. "I'm always wondering… is it wrong of me to want to be with her so much?"

"You'll be good for her," I comforted. "She needs someone who will always be there for her. We all know sooner or later her family will split up. She'll loose her brothers. I'll leave her when… when it happens," he knew what I was talking about, from the look on his face. "And so will all of the other vampires. Human friends come and go. She can't stay with her parents forever. She doesn't know her real family. She needs someone who will always be there, no matter what."

"You're right." he said, mind made up. "I will never give up on her,"

"Now as much as I'd like to sit here with you," I said when the blood was cleaned up. "I have places to be."

We walked down to the cars, and he waved goodbye as I got to my friends.

"Who is that?" Jessica said, eyeing him. I giggled.

"That would be Embry Call."

"_That's _who's stalking Hero?" she screeched. I saw her eye twitch and jaw drop as she took in his muscled profile leaving.

As I laughed, I swear I saw his form shake with laughter too.

**If I meet the amount of reviews that I am hoping for (won't say how many that's just bitchy) I might update tomorrow. Or else you'll just have to wait… weeks and weeks. Haha. it's a super good chapter. Lets just say… sparks fly, things get heated… lol. **

**Ask for the link to my Blog if your interested.**

**Hats. DVDs. Volly ball. Piercing Buddha. Dresses. Ché. Double beds. Phone. Mirrors. Xide. Eyeliner. Big TVs. Cats. Mangoes. Tattoos. Sexyfull homeboyzz. Writing to my blog. Peanuts. Koala. My boyfriend, aka best friends squeeze. Things not sounding right when I say them. Sniffing kittens. Drunkness. Roomies. Pillows. Midnight. Family Guy. Radiator. **

**Peace, love, empathy.**

**Oh Inverted World. **


	20. The Whily Little Princess Fairy Bitch

**So. Yeah. Here's the big one. I really liked writing this. It's like a one of a kind chap in this story. I don't think I'll have anything else from this pairing.**

**Yeap. And here's a note to my bestest reviewer, JasperSAYSrelax128. Yeap, sorry if this is a tad sidetracked from the main story, buuut this chapter is vital if that _thing _is going to happen. Without this, it would be like doing a neutralization reaction without a catalyst.. Sure, it would happen, but it would take yonkers. Soooo bear with me :)**

**Please & Thank you. Peace.**

_"It was your hair that did it,_  
_It was your hair that lit the fuse,_  
_A golden brown halo,_  
_Like sunlight peering through trees._  
_I ask you for the time, but I am asking for so much more,_  
_A moth to your light bulb, you made my heart beat faster..."  
_-Halo_ (**by** Bloc Party)_

_**Hero Batons**._

I buried my face in my pillow, and tried to block out the woodsy smell in my room.

"I know you're awake," came a soft voice. "Please talk to me,"

"I don't know how you keep getting into my room," I muttered, rolling over. "Please stop stalking me, Embry,"

"Please talk to me," he said, almost desperately. "I just want to be around you, to get to know you… that never happens because every time I try to go near you that jackass attacks me,"

"That jackass happens to be…" I muttered, but didn't continue. I had no reason to defend Andrew. He broke my heart. He was the reason I met Embry, the reason he was convinced we were 'soul mates'. It was his fault I was getting stalked by a weird wolf boy, and the sick part was that now that someone took an interest in me and I was over Andrew, now he was like my own personal bodyguard, not letting me out of his sight.

"Go away," I said again instead. "I'm not wearing trousers,"

"You also smell like mangos," he commented, ignoring the fact that I was indecent and he was a freak. No, I was the freak (or so I had been told, I saw nothing wrong with myself), he was a weird freak-of-nature (once again, I was no one to talk) but still… I was indecent and he stalked me, and he was a strange boy with obsessive tendencies. I know, I had all of the freaky facts about imprinting, and I didn't buy it. I mean, once someone is _imprinted_ on, it's like the world is all, 'Okay, your imprinted on, now you have spend the rest of your life married to this _charming _wolf boy and bear plenty of strong sons.' Sickened. Chances are if I refused to bear him strong sons I would be stalked by a force of nature and endure the disapproving looks from the tribe, people I thought were my friends.

"Yeah, well, I overdose on fruit sometimes. It's a Hero thing. You wouldn't get it."

"Tell me everything about yourself. I want to know every single Hero thing."

"You are such a freak," I muttered. "Leave me the hell alone."

"But you need to know that I just want to be here for you. I just need you to know that I live for you now."

"I don't want to bear you strong sons! Get out!" I screeched. Why couldn't he just leave?

I heard him sit down at my desk silently. I turned over in my bed and tried, unsuccessfully, to get to sleep.

"Hero, listen to me." He said suddenly, and he seemed to gather his thoughts for a moment before going on. "I love you. I love you not because you're adorable or because you're sweet, or because you're small and cute. I love you because you make me step outside myself and look at who I really am. You make me want to be a better person just because you are who you are."

"Shut the hell up, ass jerky! You don't know me!" I spat. I knew I was no beauty queen, I wasn't the coolest or the wittiest, and it just stung when people lied to me like that to try to get on my good side, even if they claim they were this farfetched magical thing called _imprinted_. If you ask me they're all glorified stalkers.

"No you listen to me, Hero Batons." he stood up and gave me a stern look that made me hold my tongue. "I feel like I can tell you absolutely everything and I know you will listen, if you give me the chance." he sat down on my bed next to me, and attempted to take my hand. I pulled away. "But I'll keep all of this to myself, if it makes you uncomfortable, you just need to know that I will always be here for you. There will never be anyone else for me because I love you, and I will love forever, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it, no matter how much you want to, I will always be here for you and I will never leave you."

It was so weird being on the other end of one of those talks. I was usually the lovesick child, desperate for the love of someone uninterested.

I never wanted to be one of those jerks who would crush an innocent heart, for nothing other than loving. I never wanted to inflict the pain I knew all too well on anyone else. I never wanted to be like Andrew.

A hot tear rolled down my cheek as I sat next to Embry Call, silently. The tear fell not because Embry was being charmingly befuddled (because he wasn't, he was just having a Lifetime-Movie moment, as so many of those stupid wolf boys have once they're _imprinted_) but because he was a mirror of me, and I was Andrew, not even willing to give a chance. "Please don't cry…" he whispered. "I'm sorry. I never wanted to upset you."

I suppressed a sob, and leaned into him. His sweltering heat pulsed through me, as he wrapped his arms around me. In that moment, caught in his warm embrace, for the first time in a very long time I felt like everything would be okay. It was like me and him were not two separate souls, but linked together, as one. And it sickened me.

"You really thought he was the one for you, didn't you?" he whispered, resting his chin on the top of my head. I didn't want to respond in words. Instead I wrapped my arms around his thick torso, and held onto him with all I had, as if he was the glue that was holding me together. "Want my advice? Stay mad as long as you can 'cause once you stop, it hurts like hell."

"I know," was all I could utter. This depressing topic was really getting me on a downer. _Andrew, Andrew, Andrew, Andrew… _he was always on my mind, all of the time. He was my one and only, or so I had always believed. He was my first memory, waking up, cold, bloody and sore from my first transformation, staring at me with his curious blue eyes. I couldn't remember my name. He said I was a hero, for not dying during my first transformation as so many did. The word had sparked a memory in my brain… a name? my name? But now… there was a new thought, a small one, trying to fight its way past all of the cluttered thought of Andrew.

_Embry. _

"It hurts," I whispered. I was referring to the dull ache in my chest, and the confusion that was intoxicating my brain.

"I know he hurt you, baby." he kissed the top of my head. "The truth is, everyone's going to hurt you. You just have to decide who is worth the pain." I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand and stayed still. "And I don't expect you to bear me many strong sons."

"That's good to know." I paused and thought of his words. "Wait! You said _many_! That means you want at least one strong son!"

"Well the Call family line has so continue on somehow… kidding, Hero, I'm kidding with you." he said when he saw my shocked/angry face.

"You're an asshole," I muttered, yet stayed close to min, in spite of myself. "Your just want to knock me up,"

He gripped me tighter. "I will never hurt you, Hero, ever. I'm not like him. I'd kill myself before seeing another tear escape your eyes." he paused. "And I never said anything about knocking you up,"

"Actually you did," I eyed him.

"Well, I didn't mean it. We'll be safe… I'm only joking, Hero!"

"Embry, why don't you just go home and cry into your pillow like the little bitch I know you are?"

"Well I'd rather me cry than you," he said, serious and scary again with all of his Soulmate bullshit.

"But what if I'm watching _300_? I always get really sad when Leonidas dies in the end,"

"Well," he paused. "Maybe we wont watch _300 _then,"

"But it's like my favourite movie!" I said, and looked up at his confused expression. "I'm going to want to watch it all of the time,"

"But if you think about it, Leonidas died for his cause. It wouldn't have been such an epic movie if he had lived to tell the tale," he said softly.

"Yeah but he left his wife and kid… not to mention all of Sparta… and I get really sad when that other guy dies, you know, that guy's son that get's his head gets chopped off,"

"Baby, baby, baby…" he sighed, and rested his head on my shoulder.

"Do you want to watch _300 _now?" I said sheepishly, releasing myself from his arms and picking my laptop off the bedside table. "I haven't seen it in like a week. I'm trying to go cold turkey because the last time I watched it with Christian he made fun of me,"

"If you promise not to get sad," he said giving me a strange look. I frowned at him. "And I'm going to have to beat up Chris now,"

"My DVDs are on the desk over there, get _300, _it should be on top somewhere," I gestured to the cluttered desk at the wall. "Pick out something light to watch afterwards."

"But it's kind of late, don't you want to sleep?" he began, but I cut him off.

"Just do it or get out of my house, ass penis," I was done being nice to him. After that night at the beach, I had promised not to let me feelings steer me. I was going to be a robot girl, and forget about that minor emotional slip-up I had a minute ago.

Embry didn't say anything else after that, and diligently sorted through the movies on my desk. "How about P.S I Love You? Leonidas is in it," he said.

"No, no, no, no, that's one of Gala's. It's her dream to marry an Irish boy. Pick out a _good _movie, please,"

I set up my computer on my bed.. He came over after a moment, and sat down beside me, not touching me on purpose. I silently thanked him for it, and also hated him for it. My mind went slightly fuzzy as I caught his scent… he was like the ultimate trip.

"Do you want to sleep over?" I suddenly blurted out without thinking. I instantly regretted it, felt insanely dumb and blushed violently. Embry just looked over at me, shocked, and I cringed. A smooth recovery was in order. "I mean, it'll be really late by the time the movies are over. You shouldn't have to walk home by yourself. You'd get raped."

He laughed at me for a moment, a horrible moment that seemed to last a lifetime, before saying, "Yeah sure, if it's what you want, baby. But I'm sure I'd be safe, though. I'm a tough man,"

"Whatever, Embry, man, I'm just looking out for your safety, here. I'm a nice person…" I muttered, and started up the movie.

"The nicest, baby," was all he said, with a stupid grin that I felt the urge to punch off his stupid face. Stupid Embry making me feel stupid feelings. Nobody makes me feel my own feelings.

The first five minutes of the movie we chatted lightly. After that, the silence was unbearable. I felt Embry wanting to say something, and I prayed he'd just spit it the hell out before the silence killed me.

"Can I put my arm around you? You look ever so cold," he said finally. I rolled my eyes.

"Embry, your such a loser and can I just ask why you talk like your in so bad movie? You're not supposed to ask, man." I said and shook my head. "You either yawn and do it the subtle way, or just grab me. You're the most pathetic excuse for a man I've ever met. Nobody is ever going to love you, or even find you attractive, because you are one weird fish," Putting him down didn't seem to discourage him, because he just smiled mysteriously.

He looked at me for a moment, and then leaned over me, pushing me down onto the bed so that he was pinning me down, noses nearly touching. Then he scooped me up into his arms, holding me securely. "Is that good enough for you?" he breathed. I could feel him getting flustered….

And no, I was not flustered. Not one bit. And I don't tell lies either.

"Yeap," I said, feeling his hot breath against me. He released me, to my horror, and sat back. I did the same, and he leaned into me.

"You know, it's very easy to confuse a physical attraction with a real connection." he smiled, our noses nearly touching. I looked at him, confused. Was he saying that he just had a physical attraction to me?

"What are you trying to say to me, asspirate?" I said slowly.

"What you had for Andrew was physical, I'd say. He was all you knew." he paused nervously. "You can tell by the kiss, you know. The other stuff, the sex, is he hot? None of it matters. All that matters is the kiss."

"Oh?" was all I could say, before I felt his warm lips brush mine. I kissed his lips lightly, it was a sweet, closed-mouth affair, and a really nice one.

It wasn't a passionate kiss, just a simple one, but I could feel electricity flow through me. Not real electricity, because that would be a little bit fatal not to mention weird, but it was a metaphor that I had never understood until that moment. I put my hands on his face, and he placed a hand lightly on my waist as we continued to kiss slowly, tenderly on my bed.

Goddam emotional kiss, ruining my robot-girl plans. Stupid gay homosexual Embry and his stupid feelings.

_Screw it, _I thought. _Maybe one night wouldn't be that bad. _

"Let's forget about the movie," I said, breaking the kiss and pushed him back, straddling him lightly. He was so much bigger than I was, so it was a difficult feat to start up the kiss again, deepening it. His hands moved to my back, under my shirt, as my hands tried to get under his, feeling his hard stomach, and pulling up his shirt. He sat up, me still sitting on him, and I pulled it over his head. He removed mine as well, and then went to the clasp on my bra. He struggled with it for a while, before I decided to help him out. I felt he needed this as badly as I wanted it.

"You're such a loser, Embry," I sighed as I unhooked it, and then pushed him down, and started kissing his neck, feeling the skin on our chests against one another.

"You're amazing," he whispered, before lowering his hands down my back, slowly.

**Haha, yeah sorry about ending that there. Gotta keep it PG, you know, a lot of kids out there. So, yup, a whole chapter dedicated to Hero and Embry. The next will be about other stuff, back to my darling Bella. I realised, I love her (in a non stalkerish-lesbian way) after having a big insight about shit, and her and Edward are perfect for each other, blahdy blah. And I miss you, J. This chapter is for you. Xxxx**

**PS Renesmee still sucks.**

**Yeuuh so review, si vous plet, any thoughts? Should Embry and Hero break up? I'm leaning towards that one. Haha. although I just laughed, that was no joke. It was nervous laughter. In case I haven't made it obvious, Hero Batons is a freak. Commitment-phobe. Weird fish. Weirdass mo-fo. **

**I'm not looking forward to writing the next few chapters. There's gonna be real tragedy. I'm going to do something that Smeyer never had the balls to do. **

**That's right, boys and girls, character deaths. (Plural, my dears)**

**(Don't worry, your precious Cullens/attractive wolf me are safe)**

…**but before that I'm going to do something great face, Bella-wise.**

**Oh and okay… one more thing. Most of my characters have an element of one of my idols, in case nobody noticed… one of them has his hair, another his mouth, another his personality. And even one has his name… can anyone guess who? There's a very specific reference in chpt. 2. First one to tell me gets to influence the story… make an important decision about something mentioned above. (the Smeyer has no balls thing)**

**Colourful. Ice. Diary. Books. Intimacy, Remixed. Friends. Secret Keys. Blonde. Club 27. Omen. Smoke. White Lace. Helicopter. Wonderful. Kisses. Look At Me. Lady Gaga. Lord Of The Rings. Jim Morrison. Partie Traumatic. My Mercury's in Retrograde.**

**Peace, Love, Empathy,**

**Oh Inverted World.**


	21. Sebastian Batons had the Rage Gene

_**Wow. First update in yonkers. I've been busy as hell (in Egypt :O and with dumbass friends who just want to take up my time) aaand writing is boring. **_

_**Buut, enjoy the last chapter of happiness of this story for a while.**_

"_When I first met you_  
_You was living in your dayroom_  
_You was wrenching chachos_  
_You was livin on voodoo_  
_Yes you was tryna hex me _  
_All tellin' me im sexy_  
_Yes always tryna text me_  
_Or dance next to me_  
_Singin 'Listen to your body tonight, it's gonna treat you right..."  
_-Listen to your Body Tonight_ (**by** Black Kids)_

I knocked twice before Jeanette opened the door.

She welcomed me in like a daughter, fussing, offering me breakfast, taking my jacket and complimenting my new sweater. I tried to dismiss her gently, but accepted the offer of breakfast. It was early on a Saturday morning, and Christian had promised to take me to Seattle for some shopping. I left without any breakfast, and was regretting every minute of it. Breakfast was good.

The family sat in the kitchen around the island counter, eating what I hoped was a buffet, but knew better. I sat down between Sebastian and Hero, who was wolfing down her Cheerios.

"Morning, munchkin," Seb said as he ruffled my hair. "Sleep well? I know everyone here did,"

I favoured grabbing one of his toasts and smiling than responding to his question. I was so hungry.

Around the table everyone was in their Pjs. It was odd seeing them in the morning. Christian's hair looked amazing in the morning, a real bedhead look, with his hair sticking at random angles. He was wearing a blue t-shirt and I presume boxers. I couldn't help but notice Seb beside me was topless, wearing tartan pyjama bottoms that looked great with his tan skin. On his upper arm he had a series of seemingly random numbers tattooed, like a barcode without the bars, and on his back was a huge tattoo of a black dragon. I never knew that before. Hero was wearing a plain tank top and black silky man boxers, Gala in some sexy nightie-type thing (so typical) but Andrew was mysteriously missing from breakfast.

"We'll leave in half an hour, babe," Chris said through a mouthful of bacon sandwich, "I have this great shop that you need to see, they sell all sorts of things,"

"He means surf boards and boring stuff," Gala added. "Chris is a surf nut, if you haven't noticed yet."

"California state champion 2001," he said proudly. "I was infected, like, two days after I won the trophy,"

"And how long after that did you infect that psychopath Luca Reinhart?" a bitter voice sounded. Andrew came into the room, bringing a cloud of negativity with him. His eyes seemed darker and angrier than usual, and his arms were crossed defensively. His dark hair fell across his face in a strangely emo fashion.

"Fuck off, Andrew," Hero said offhandedly as she buttered her toast. "That was a mistake. Do we all go around reminding you of all the people you've infected?"

"At least none of the people I've infected have become murderous psychos," he muttered, and sat down on the other side of Gala.

"We can go over the people I've infected if you want," Seb said coldly. "Just clear you're schedule for the next week. And if you want me to take up your month, I can give you the names of the people I've killed,"

I stared at Seb in horror. The whole room went quiet.

Andrew hesitated for a moment. "But that was never your fault," he said, kind as far as it goes with Andrew.

"It's in you're genes, you cant help that," Gala volunteered with a kind smile.

'_What?' _I mouthed at Christian. '_Later' _he mouthed back.

The chat was uneasy at the breakfast table. I wished that Chris would hurry the hell up, the tension could have been cut with a knife. Until Jeanette came in and changed everything.

"Does your friend want anything to eat?" Jeanette asked Hero, who shook her head. I found it strange that she was referring to me like that, I was the only guest so to speak of. Why wasn't she just addressing me to my face? "Well, when he comes down just let him help himself."

Whoa. Hold up.

"I don't think he'll be coming down in a hurry," Hero said as I stared at her with a dumbstruck expression. "Firstly he's still fast asleep, and secondly I stole his underpants,"

Gala burst out laughing, but I stared at Hero with an expression of pure shock. My brain couldn't comprehend what was being said.

Was _everybody _doing it except for me? Even little Hero Batons?

"Wait, who…" I began, but I couldn't get the words out.

"I don't approve of Hero's bedfellow either," Seb shook his mane of coal black hair. "But what can you do? She's a big girl now,"

I stared at Seb in horror. I was at least counting on him going into psycho brother mode.

_Bedfellows_. Who says that?

"Now you leave Hero's bedfellow alone, you hear me, Sebastian?" Jeanette scolded.

Gah, there goes that word again…

"Embry slept over?" I finally managed to choke out. Hero grinned like a crazy person.

"Oh yeah," she smirked.

"But you guys didn't… do anything?" I said hopefully.

"Well I can say if they weren't then there was some pretty odd sounds coming from your room, Hero," Gala said with a wink of her freakishly long lashes.

I felt sick. Why was Hero Batons, the biggest weirdo ever, getting some when I wasn't?

"I need to go now," I said shortly, ignoring the protests from my friends.

I walked briskly to my car, started it and drove five miles south, towards the glass backed house. Edward was of course waiting outside, an impatient smile on his face as I arrived.

"I thought you were supposed to be with Christian Batons today, dear?" he said worriedly, taking in my expression.

"Get in the car, Edward," I sad shortly, not even looking at him.

"Bella I don't know-"

"Just get in the goddam car," I hissed again. He frowned and then grudgingly obliged.

We didn't speak on the ride to my house, but I could feel Edwards eyes on me the whole time. He was worried.

So what? Hero Batons had sex with Embry. Edward had no say in what was going to happen next.

I parked diagonally, in front of the house, blocking most of the road. I got out silently and walked to the house. When inside, I went straight for my room. Edward followed nervously.

I spun around on him suddenly, attacking his lips with mine. He responded for a moment, and then pushed me away at arms length.

"Bella I-" he stuttered, but I wasn't having any of his dumb excuses.

Hero had sex with Embry. My boyfriend was a prude.

"Edward I don't want your lameass excuses, you either love me or you don't." I said shortly, and began taking off my shoes and trousers. Until a pair of white hands stopped me, of course.

"You know I love you but-" he began, but I cut him off again.

"Then there's no _but_s here Edward. Prove you love me. If you don't do this I'll forever be convinced that you don't love me,"

And do you know what? I didn't care that I was lying through my teeth to him, because it seemed to be working. He let go of me and I resumed my stripping, while he looked thoughtful.

"I love you," he said, as if it were the bottom line to whatever he was about to say next. "But what is up with you today? You're acting crazy,"

"I'm acting crazy?" I screeched, in probably a really crazy way. "Maybe I am! We all go a little crazy sometimes. At least we _should_. Loosen up! You're such a prude! Man up, Edward! I have plenty of guys lining up around the block for a piece of this-" I gestured up and down my semi-nude body "-and I've promised myself to you, and that's not going to change anytime soon. So. Stop being so selfish. Think of someone else for a change, you self-righteous ass,"

That seemed to be the straw that broke the camels back, because his eyes suddenly got this really crazy look, like they had this mad hunger. He ripped his shirt off in one swift motion (which was hot, might I add) and swept me off my feet, kissing me ferociously. We landed on a heap on my bed, and I fumbled with the button on his fancy-ass trousers. He tore the fabric of my bra off with his teeth, which was a turn on, but also annoyed me a small bit because I really liked that bra.

"I swear there's something in the water over there in the Batons' house," He growled in my ear, before attacking my neck with rough, cold kisses, moving swiftly down my body,

**So. Verdict, please? I'm sorta kinds losing a tad bit of interest in this story… I mean I love Christian so I want to give him a happy ending, and I like Bella & Edward so they're getting their Happy ever after. So I think I may as well stick with it, but updates will be more infrequent.**

_**As for the rest? Someone's gonna die, I will say that mucho! Maybe even more. **_

**JK Rowling once so wisely said that Happy Endings Are For Amatures. **

**Agreed, miss Rowling.**

**Check out the Pandablog for more info (If you want the adress of my blog just ask)**

**I love ýou all so much =]**


	22. Oh Shiiiiiit

**Happy late Paddy's day! Ahh epic epic I wrote this when I got home, so if it doesn't make sense its cos I was less than sober. So… yeah. Lots going on. **

**One Month Later.**

"_Run, run, run, run, run, run  
And you cannot run or ever, ever escape  
You cannot run or ever hide it away  
Something glorious is about to happen  
The reckoning."  
_-Positive Tension _(__**by **_**Bloc Party)**

"Edward?" I called, stepping out of the shower, steam coming off my skin as I reached for a towel. Of course my beautiful boyfriend would be waiting diligently on my bed for me, eyes politely averted, until I got dressed. I don't know why he always did that. It was weird as fuck.

I glanced around the room, but Edward was gone. There was no sign of his presence, only a small white note, folded neatly on my pillow.

_Something urgent has come up. Please wait for someone to pick you up, I've been on the phone to Bassanio, he's going to take care of you. Don't go out by yourself. Don't answer the door unless you know the person. Victoria is back. But she has friends. Love you. Edward. xxx_

My blood ran cold. Victoria was back. With friends. Who would even want to be friends with her? She was a grade-A bitch.

I sunk down to the floor, and held my knees. Edward would attack Victoria. Victoria would attack him. One would die.

The doorbell rang. I jumped. Then lay down. I just wanted to lie down and die. Edward didn't say goodbye to me. I didn't want the last thing I said to him to be '_I'm not shaving my legs tonight, deal with it.'_

Footsteps in the hallway sent palpitations in my heart. Heavy footsteps. Manly footsteps.

Edward?

From where I was lying, I saw pair of torn black converse enter the room. The fear was paralyzing me. My mind kept flinging itself back to the ballet studio. James was standing over me again. But this time I had no Edward to protect me…

The man bent down and said something to me. I shut my eyes. I felt a touch on my shoulder. A warm touch… a familiar touch. A safe touch.

"Stop freaking me out, Bella, say something!" came the smooth voice of Sebastian Batons. I looked up into his near black eyes, worried as he apprised me, lying on the ground like a freak. "Edward is going to be fine," he said, and smiled the kindest smile he had ever given me.

"When did you pierce your eyebrow?" was stupidly the first thing I said. Had he always had it? But then I remembered the more important issue at hand. "What's happening?" I whispered. "What is Victoria doing?"

"She somehow ran into the worst person imaginable," he shook his head of flicky black hair, that was hanging in his eyes. "Christians arch-nemesis, to put it one way, and they've teamed up."

"Oh god," I muttered and did an epic face-palm. Arch-nemesis. How perfect.

"Psychopathic werewolves and crazy vampires working together in a crazy-ass plot to exterminate us," he half laughed without humour. "Luca Reinhart was the only girl Christian ever loved, and also the only person that he ever infected. I mean, I hear she was lovely when she was human. But Christian infected her by accident and left without knowing she was turned, and since then she's been tracking him,"

"Can we go?" I whispered. I could see the slim, muscular girl with platinum dreadlocks, and taunting catlike eyes. Then I saw the burgundy red eyes and flaming red hair of Victoria on the background of her white skin. Why me?

"We're safe, Bella. We have all of our people out there, they're going to have a surprise attack tonight on Victoria. She has a small army-type thingy but the vamps are going to eradicate them with the help of our pack and the wolves."

We started walking out to his car, a black battered racing type.

"But you're not fighting?"

"I have a genetic… abnormality," he said with an inward frown. "I'm the most unsafe when in wolf form,"

I didn't say anything as we got into his car. It smelled like smoke and mangos. I had never seen Seb drive, but his car was a mechanical extension of himself.

"Aren't you curious?" he cocked one black eyebrow. "I'm a genetically modified lycan, Patient Zero of the Rage species,"

"Patient Zero," I repeated quietly to myself. Didn't that mean that he was the first to be infected with a sickness?

"Have you ever heard of Cruz International?" he gave that trademarked raised eyebrow. I felt an absurd urge to kiss my hand and slap him with it. "Well, they're a big medical company, they make drugs and shit. But what people don't know is that the owner is a lycan. And he started to develop a newer, stronger breed of werewolves. Guess who he tested on? His only son." he spat out the window.

I looked at his furious expression. "So I'm a Rage werewolf. Stronger and more temperamental and infinitely more dangerous than anyone else with the virus."

"Your dad infected you?" I whispered.

"I always lived with my mom, so when he asked me to come live with him in his mansion with his new wife when I was fifteen I was like, sure. Then all the weirdness started, and I became a violent, murderous monster. And my dad would like let me go off and slaughter people, like he encouraged it."

"But then you found Bassanio?" I took his hand, which was gripping the clutch.

"His sister Nerissa is my stepmother, they're unreally different," he took my hand and stroked absently with his thumb. "Want to know w fun fact? You know where Bassanio is from, right?"

"Of course. Italy."

"Do you know where Hero's stepdad is from?" he raised his eyebrow again. The metallic red piercing glinted in the sun.

"Didn't even know she had one." I shrugged.

"Well, she does, and his name is Diego Rossi," I had never noticed that he had perfect lips before that moment. I stared at them as he spoke.

"From Italy? Like what, Bassanio's evil twin?"

"No, cousin actually," he grinned. "Doesn't know a thing about werewolves, and has no clue that his stepdaughter is living with us, hasn't even spoken to Baz since they were kids. But it's cool how were all connected, right? I mean it brings us all together. We're a happy family."

"I know people who would kill to be in such a close family unit like you guys." myself included. But I would be, soon. The Cullens.

I kissed my hand and stroked his cheek. He smiled a brilliant smile at me, and took my hand and kissed it.

"I see why Chrissy likes you so much. You don't say much and you are the cutest,"

"I'm an epic win," I smiled and turned up the radio.

We pulled up at the white house with a picket fence. There were no cars outside.

"Mom, Baz, Andy, Gala and Chris are off with your vampires and them shifters. They're going to exterminate the baddy vamps, and then we have an epic alcohol party!"

I rolled my eyes. "And what are we doing today?"

"Well, you me and Hero are going to play cards, do shots, play some Xbox, maybe watch an episode of True Blood or two, paint each others toenails…"

"Sounds fun," I said, glancing at him.

"Or we can have a sexy party," he glanced slyly at me. "Since you and Edward did the you-know-what you've been giving off the greatest vibes…"

"Shush," I said as I opened the door. Direct when got out I knew something was wrong. Seb stopped dead in his tracks.

"Hero." he muttered, and sprinted to the door. I ran after him, with a heavy heart. There were red splatters on the door.

When he opened the door there was blood on the walls. The lights were off. I felt a lurch in my stomach as the stench of salty blood hit me. "Hero!" I cried. To my horror, I heard a laugh from the sitting room. Seb sprinted again into the room, and then let out a cry.

"Luca, you dumb sadistic bitch…" he hissed, and then I heard a soft laugh that I remembered from a dream. I came in behind Seb. Lying across the sofa, wearing only a white man's dress shirt, clenched with a belt, was Luca, a girl I had only seen a dream so long ago. Her feet were bare and her legs exposed, and her shirt buttoned down low, exposing her soft white body. She still had her hair in long, white blond dreadlocks but they were tied with a purple band, but she still wore her catlike black eye makeup.

"Hello, you," she smiled at me as she raised her elegant body. Seb made a growling noise and put his arm in front if me defensively. "Oh, Sebastian my darling, no need to be so rude," she ran her fingers down his chest. "I'm only being polite to your girlfriend,"

"Where is Hero?" he spat. Luca stepped closer to us. She was lethal, alert, deadly, looking to kill. I froze behind Seb and hugged him lightly from behind. He would protect me.

"Keller wanted to keep the body. She was pretty."

Sebastian let out a roar and flung himself into a fighting stance, and out of that gave one mighty kick to her stomach. Luca was flung backwards and hit a wall, but out of that sprang like a baby tiger towards us. She was fast, but Seb was faster. He caught her by her swanlike neck, and kept her at an arms length. "Why the hell are you here?" he said with such rage that I took a step back.

"Well I wanted to kill your sister," she laughed, a high, manic laugh. Seb tightened his iron grasp on her neck and she choked for a moment. "I wanted distilled venom, and your pretty little Hero refused to give them to us,"

"So you killed my little sister," Seb spat, and let go of his arm around me to choke her with two hands. I saw how his biceps bulged. He was so much stronger than her, with his hybrid Rage gene.

"I never said kill," she spluttered. "Torture, maim, well, actually she may as well be dead…"

I felt the tears just run down my face. Hero was gone. Her blood was on the wall. Some sicko had her body. Edward was fighting an army of vampires. My whole world seemed to be falling apart.

"We don't even have any distilled L-V!" Seb cried through what sounded like tears. "Bassanio was going to induce transformations into my family to fight you, you dumb whore!"

Luca tried to say something, but just choked and struggled.

Then I heard something shuffle behind me. I felt a hard hand on my shoulder, and then was flung to the ground. Standing above me was a beautiful man dressed in formal wear, with thick black glasses and dirty blond hair. He blew me a kiss, and then I saw something glint in his hand. A syringe, filled with a dark red liquid. I tried to scream to Seb, but I felt a huge hand clamp my mouth. I watched helplessly as the tall model-like man stabbed Seb in the back with the huge syringe, and inject the thick burgundy liquid into him slowly.

Seb began to shudder violently, and let go of Luca, who began laughing manically. I tried to scream again, but I felt a salty taste in my mouth. The hands holding me were drenched in blood. The man holding me was vastly huge, and his long black dreadlocks hung over my shoulder unpleasantly. He slid one hand down my back, and the other went around my neck, choking me. I tried to scream, but I couldn't get any air…

"Shush, m'dear," he purred. I tried to bite him. I choked. "Ah, ah, ah, do you want to L-venom too?" I didn't know what he meant. I struggled on. I felt my trachea closing, I needed air. I needed to get this big man off me. "Do you want to be a werewolf too? Just look at your friend, you want to be like that, darling?" his strong English accent scared me.

Sebastian was collapsed on the ground, shaking and shuddering, screaming in pain and foaming at the mouth when I realised what was happening. Luca, the unnamed model man and Keller the big English guy were packing up random items in the room, leaving me. I breathed in the fresh air, but I could feel that my throat was sorely bruised and I couldn't possibly speak. I reached over to Seb, who was rolling on the floor, choking on himself and shaking.

I bent over his muscled body and rolled him over. His eyes were closed and he was shuddering so violently that I tried to keep him still. I held one hand over his stomach and one on his arm, and his muscles seemed to be twitching, tensing and relaxing, pulling violently at themselves.

Suddenly he stopped. He just lay still. His abs tensed, and didn't relax. Like he had just died, suddenly.

Then his eyes opened.

In the car, his eyes were their usual mysterious blacky brown. Now it was like they had gone negative, they were fully ice green, almost white. And then it hit me. He was in the middle of a transformation. They had speeded up the process by injecting him with distilled venom.

And I needed to get out of there.

Wasn't it Sebastian that had the Rage gene?

**Didn't I say I'd do it?**

**I love you. **


	23. Death in the family

**I don't quite care for Twilight to be honest.**

I woke with a splitting pain in my side. My hair was damp and matted, and my abdomen felt heavy. The phrase _internal bleeding _came to mind.

I was cramped in the foetal position, curled up on the bathroom floor where I had locked myself last night.

The night was one of horror.

I couldn't even think about it without wanting to violently throw up. Yeah, it was _that _bad.

Sebastian's wolf form was huge, hulking and extremely vicious.

His green eyes had a slightly red tinge when he bared his knifelike teeth and almost tore my arm off.

My arm.

I glanced down at it and instantly regretted that. The bone was visible and I was full sure that it was broken in at least two places, and there was coagulated blood all over my clothes.

I pulled myself to my feet, but my legs felt like Jelly. If only I could get out of the bathroom and reach the phone…

It took a solid, painful ten minutes to reach the phone, and another ten before the ambulance arrived.

I passed out on the way to the hospital.

**xXx**

I woke in an unfamiliar room with an unfamiliar face staring down at me.

The small female doctor took my details, and asked if there was anyone I would like to call. I said no.

She told me that it seemed that I was viciously attacked by a dog, it's teeth had snapped my arm and bitten me repeatedly on the leg, not to mention managed to puncture one of my lungs when it broke one of my ribs.

I would have the scars for the rest of my life.

"Your body seems to be repairing itself at an alarming rate, miss Swan," the doctor said in a more hopeful tone. "It is fighting off all infections and the wounds are perfectly clean, which is unusual for animal bites as their saliva is teeming with bacteria.

"The broken bones are realigned and have already started mending, and at this rate the casts will be off in a month. You are a very fortunate girl, Miss Swan."

"Fortunate, sure," I muttered. As I lay in bed my family and friends were fighting for my life. And god knows what happened to Seb. I know it wasn't his fault, but I couldn't help but wish he was in a ditch somewhere hurting as much as I was.

"Are you sure there is no one you want us to call?" she asked kindly, just as a nurse rushed into the room. "Doctor Hart, you're needed in the IC unit, there are two more victims of these animal attacks," she said quickly.

"Is it serious?" she said as she checked the bandages on my leg.

"Extremely," the nurse stressed and then rushed off to find more doctors.

More animal attacks? I hoped in my heart of hearts that it was Luca and her friends.

Maybe it was Seb. Maybe Chris had become so injured during the fight…

I shook those thoughts and rushed out of the bed. The pain was crippling, and made me vomit-ready, but I tore the tubes out of my arms and followed the doctor.

There were doctors running in and out of two rooms, carrying bags of blood and the like.

I actually screamed when I looked into the first room.

Lying on the bed was an unconscious Christian, looking like a reject from a gory movie. His blond hair was brownish red from dried blood and his nose looked about a half an inch off, and the lips on his lovely mouth were burst and still bleeding.

There was a brace around his neck and a sling on his arm, and his stomach was bleeding heavily as a nurse replaced bandages.

"What is wrong with him.?" I screeched at the nurse. She gave me a disapproving look and told me that this isn't a theatre. "He is my friend," I hissed. "His name is Christian,"

Her expression went from disapproving to pitying. "His neck is broken, and he has lost a lot of blood,"

"Will he be okay?" I choked.

"It's too early to tell. For now he is stable, so we cant tell the extent of his injuries until he wakes up." she paused. "If he wakes up."

I felt a sick lurch in my stomach and I knew I had to get out of there. But I hadn't counted on what I saw next.

I should have stayed with Christian.

All of the activity was centred in the next room. I stood in the open doorway where doctors rushed in and out and felt sick to my stomach all over again.

Andrew lay in a bed with doctors all around him, pushing and pulling his body, stitching and cutting and cleaning. There were tubes in and out of him, and his face was a battered mess of blue and black.

One of his legs was suspended, and I had a flashback of my own arm when I saw the snapped bones protruding as the blood contented to pour.

"Someone put pressure on his leg!" a middle aged doctor yelled. "He is loosing too much blood, he is haemorrhaging too heavily internally!"

The chaotic scene intensified as one doctor gave orders, and the team worked hard to keep Andrew alive. A new wave of panic flooded the room as the Andrew's heart rate spiked, the machine beeping wildly and unevenly as his heart began to give up.

A blond doctor began giving CPR as a silent tear ran down my cheek.

It was like a scene from a dream.

Reality had taken a nasty twist in the past 24 hours. Hero was gone. Edward was fighting. Christian was unconscious in the next room and Andrew was dying right before my eyes.

The heart rate went flat.

The panic intensified.

And then the room went as silent as Andrew's heart.

"_Time of death, two forty-two PM."_


End file.
